Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of plenplena
Coloured illustration of plenplena
#2426 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

chock-full, packed

Word origin

Not a borrowing at all. It is plena said twice, an internal Esperanto formation that intensifies by repeating the root rather than by adding anything to it. Plena itself came from Latin plenus, full.

Origin
Esperanto (internal formation)
Root
plena + plena

Examples

.

The room was chock-full of people.

.

My bag is packed full of books.

.

The street was packed with cars after work.

A doubled root, which is a device uses sparingly and effectively. Repeat a root and you intensify it: is full, is full to the brim, stuffed, chock-a-block. It is often written plen- with a hyphen, and both spellings are correct.

Is it the only one? No, and it would be a nicer story if it were. Two other genuine reduplications are already in this course, and both are adverbs: finfine at rank 1012, meaning finally, at long last, and fojfoje at 1282, meaning occasionally. at 1620 is a near miss of the same shape, made from plus nura rather than from one root twice. So the device exists, it is productive enough that you could coin belbela and be understood, and it stays rare enough that the three words above are most of what you will meet.

And the words that only look doubled. , , , and all repeat a syllable and none of them is a reduplication: they are single borrowed roots that happened to arrive with that shape, from Latin populus, purpura, murmurare, barbarus and the parrot's own name. Splitting into plus ago produces a priest's action, which is not a bird.

The distinction is worth having straight, because the doubling in carries meaning and the doubling in carries none.

Where this fits

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Esperanto · Free printables

plenplena: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "plenplena" (chock-full, packed): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 49.