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Glite Dictionary
💸 Cheap or trivial 🔩 A small nail
threepenny

threepenny

9.9
Describes a small nail about one and a quarter inches long
  • adjective
  • /ˈθriːˌpɛni/
  • Specialized
translation icon : clavo de tres peniques
  • She used a threepenny nail to hang the small frame on the wall.

Examples

  • The carpenter asked for a box of threepenny nails to finish the trim.

  • For this step, only a single threepenny nail is needed per bracket.

  • I need some threepenny nails for this project.

  • The carpenter always uses threepenny nails for framing.

  • For this step, only a single threepenny nail is needed per bracket.

  • She used a threepenny nail to hang the small frame on the wall.

  • The carpenter asked for a box of threepenny nails to finish the trim.

How Long

eightpenny nail
  • Specialized
8.1
sixpenny nail
  • Specialized
8.8
threepenny
  • Specialized
9.9

Surface Forms

threepenny positive

Morphology

threepenny = three + penny (semi-transparent) = three + penny

Morphologically clear as 'three' + 'penny', but the use as a standardized nail size label is a specialized convention not predictable from the components alone.

Etymology

Threepenny as a nail size comes from the old coin threepence, meaning 'three pence'. Nails were once named by their coin price, so a threepenny nail is a small nail about one and a quarter inches long.