🇵🇹Portuguese Source WordCode: PT

empenhar

Pronunciation / Transliteration: ẽpĩˈɲaɾ

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Pawn/pɔːn/
nounverbCEFR B2 (Upper)Top #4500 frequency
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🇵🇹 Example Sentence in Portuguese:

"Ela resolveu empenhar o colar de pérolas."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As verb
  1. 1

    To deposit an item of personal property with a pawnbroker as security for money lent.

    "She decided to pawn her grandmother's gold ring to pay for the urgent car repairs."
As noun
  1. 1

    The smallest and least valuable piece in the game of chess, which moves forward and captures diagonally.

    "He advanced his pawn to control the center of the board."

Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Synonyms (3)
Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from the Old French word 'pan' (meaning pledge or security), which stems from the Late Latin 'pannus' (meaning cloth or piece of cloth), reflecting the early medieval practice of leaving clothing or goods as a pledge for a loan. The chess meaning developed via Anglo-French from the Old French 'paon', ultimately tracing back to the Latin 'pedon-' (foot-soldier).

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