penknife

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English penne-knīf,^[2][3][4] formed from Middle English penne (“quill, feather”) + knīf (“knife”).^[2][4][5][6] The first element is the writing pen, from Old French pene (“quill pen; feather”) and Latin penna (“feather; in Late Latin, a pen for writing”);^[3][5] the second is knife, late Old English cnif.^[3] It was so named because such knives were used to make and mend quill pens.^[3][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small knife, in the Medulla Grammatice of before 1425, which glosses Latin words for small blades as a penknife and a pen knyfe.^[2][5] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century,^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 15th.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The knife was named for its first job, cutting and repairing quills.^[5][4][6] Johnson (1755) still defined it simply as a knife used to cut pens, and quoted Bacon on schoolmen "fitter to guide penknives than swords".^[9] The Middle English Dictionary already glosses it as a small pocketknife used to sharpen a quill.^[2] As the quill went out of use the name stayed with the small folding knife, and the OED now calls the original sense rare.^[5] A modern penknife has one or more blades that fold into the handle, and sometimes other tools.^[5][6][10]

Timeline

• before 1425 – a small knife for making and mending quill pens.^[5][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small pocketknife with one or more blades that fold into the handle: He cut the twine with his penknife.^[10][6][4]
2. A small knife for making and mending quill pens (now rare).^[5][4]

Related words

• pen
• knife
• quill
• pocketknife

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press