Meanings
- not comparablehuman sciencesFalling in the position after initial position; second.
In examples (81) and (82), the postpositive possessives do not occupy the peninitial position in the clause, nor the peninitial position of the NP.
2009, Stéphanie J. Bakker, The Noun Phrase in Ancient Greek: A Functional Analysis of the Order and Articulation of NP Constituents in Herodotus (Amsterdam Studies in Classical Philology), Brill, →ISBN, page 742 more examples
Because the factors conditioning edge repulsion of the pitch peak are relatively weak at the left edge, it is not surprising that peninitial prominence is rare cross-linguistically.
2014, Matthew Gordon, “Disentangling stress and pitch-accent: a typology of prominence at different prosodic levels”, in Harry van der Hulst, editor, Word Stress: Theoretical and Typological Issues, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 109I have empirically established that there were two canonical constructions available in IE languages: a head initial and a head peninitial one, the latter with the two mono- and polysydentic subtypes.
2018, Moreno Mitrović, “Configurational change in Indo-European coordinate constructions”, in Word Order Change (Oxford Studies in Diachronic and Historical Linguistics), volume 29, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 36
Origin
- Latinpaene“almost”
- Englishpeninitial
Blend of penultimate + initial, treating pen- (from Latin paene (“almost”)) as a prefix.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with peninitial
Cite this entry
peninitial. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/peninitial
“peninitial.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/peninitial. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “peninitial,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/peninitial.
Source: peninitial on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.