The building blocks of English

Affixes

pen(e)-

Almost; nearly.

Latin paene, almost.

A peninsula (Latin insula, island) is a piece of land almost surrounded by water; something penultimate (Latin ultimus, last) is last but one in a series of things; a penumbra (Latin umbra, shadow) is the partially shaded outer region of a shadow cast by an opaque object; a peneplain is a more or less level land surface produced by erosion over a long period; a process in geology that is penecontemporaneous occurs immediately after deposition of a particular stratum, almost contemporary with it.