fourpenny nail
- noun
- Specialized
:
clavo de cuatro peniques
- The carpenter used fourpenny nails to secure the wooden beams in place.
Examples
-
For the new shed, we bought a box of fourpenny nails because they are the right size for the project.
-
With the help of fourpenny nails, he was able to complete the deck quickly.
-
The saucer was heavily weathered, skinned with what had been some sort of thin fiberglass or particle board, studded together with fourpenny nails.
Blog text (2)
How Long
- Specialized
1
6.4
- Specialized
- Specialized
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The term 'fourpenny' is a conventional, historical trade-size label for nails and does not transparently mean ‘1.5 inches’ from the literal parts 'four' + 'penny'. A B1 learner who knows 'four', 'penny' and 'nail' would likely infer a price-related or otherwise literal meaning and would not be able to derive the specific length, so the expression is not compositionally predictable.
Etymology
Fourpenny nail comes from an old way of naming nail sizes. Long ago, nails were sold by the 'hundred' and named for how many pennies a hundred cost, so a fourpenny nail was the small, 1.5-inch size we still mean today.