Word of the Day: May 14, 2009 ~ pencil

pencil (pen-suhl) - noun

A pencil is "a slender tube of wood, metal, plastic, etc., containing a core or strip of graphite, a solid coloring material, or the like, used for writing or drawing."

First used in the written form around 1350-1400.  Etymologically, a pencil is a "little penis." It originally denoted a 'paintbrush' - in the current sense 'a writing implement filled with a graphite rod' and did not emerge until the 17th century.  It came via Old French pincel from Vulgar Latin pēnicellum, an alteration of Latin pēnicillum 'paintbrush.' This was a diminutive form of pēniculus 'brush,' which was in turn a diminutive of pēnis.  Pēnis originally meant 'tail' (hence the metaphor of the 'brush'), and only by extension was it used for 'male sex organ' (in which sense English adopted it as penis). The term penicillin was based on Latin pēnicillum, in allusion to the tuft-like shape of its spore-bearing structures.

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