Reconstruction:Latin/ad poenam
Latin
editEtymology
editFrom ad (literally “to”) + poenam ("pain, suffering" → "difficulty"). Possibly influenced or inspired by Latin paene (“almost, barely”).
Pronunciation
editAdverb
edit*ad poenam (Proto-Italo-Western-Romance)
Reconstruction notes
editThe addition of an adverbial /-s/ can be observed in Iberia and environs. Some descendants have taken on temporal senses, possibly via a semantic pathway such as "barely" → "only just".