pencil

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈpen.səl/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French pincel (“artist's paintbrush”) (modern pinceau),^[2][3][4] from Vulgar Latin *pēnicellus, from Latin pēnicillus (“paintbrush”), literally “little tail”,^[2][5][6] a diminutive of pēniculus (“brush”), itself from pēnis (“tail”) (see penis).^[2][3][7][8] Despite appearances it is unrelated to pen.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

An artist's fine paintbrush: about 1325 as pinsel in Barnhart, the mid-14th century in Etymonline, about 1385 in Chaucer.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Johnson still defined pencil as a small brush of hair that painters dip in their colours,^[8] and Trench noted that the distinction between pencil and paintbrush is quite modern.^[6] Sticks of pure graphite were used for marking in England from the mid-16th century,^[3] and a pencil case for them is recorded in 1552;^[2] the meaning of a graphite writing implement is first recorded in 1612.^[2][9] The modern clay-graphite mix was developed in the early 19th century.^[3] The verb, to draw with a brush, is from about 1532,^[2] and to write with a pencil from 1760–72;^[2][3] pencil in, to note tentatively, is a later use.^[3][10]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – a paintbrush.^[2]
• c. 1532 – to pencil (verb).^[2]
• 1552 – pencil case.^[2]
• 1612 – a graphite pencil.^[2][9]
• 1760–72 – to write in pencil.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An instrument for writing or drawing, made of a thin stick of graphite or coloured material in a wooden case or a holder.
2. Something shaped like a pencil, such as an eyebrow pencil.
3. (archaic) An artist's fine paintbrush.

Verb

1. To write, draw or mark with a pencil.
2. pencil in: to arrange something provisionally.

Word family

• penciler
• pencillike
• blue-pencil
• red-pencil
• eyebrow pencil
• pencil box
• styptic pencil
• grease pencil

Related words

• penis
• penicillin

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins