1651: Productivity of 'pittance' Jun 22, 2019

English has more words than any other language, but no matter what metric you use for that, it could have more. A number of words (and other elements) have lost a great deal of productivity, and while this will often lead to total disappearances, if you look carefully you may find traces. For instance, ‘pittance’, which now only relates to money, or lack thereof, comes from ‘pity’, meaning “something that is pitiful”. If this were to be used outside of the context of money this would not make sense anymore however.

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