Pencil and pen aren’t etymologically related (1 Viewer)

[Ahsoka]

Pencil and pen seem like two words that are closely related, because of the similar meaning and sound. However, they derive from completely different roots. Pen traces back to the Latin root penna, meaning feather. Pencil goes back to the Latin root penicillum, which meant little tail or little brush. Early pencils were actually what we’d consider brushes in English, though to this day some languages use words similar to pencil for brushes. This also means that the word penicillin is related to pencil. It was named such because the bacteria in the mold that produces penicillin is thought to look like a brush.

 

[Ahsoka]

Language taglist:
@athenaaa @Lexie @Dreamer_of_Songs @Nina @velvet @MyLovelyLove @alo @eclipsoul @Villains @Moguri @uran @Chiara @Snailmin @EweChanDoThis @Sooyaabean @Chohee_nyang

 

[Snailmin]

Wow I didn’t know. So interesting!

 

[uran]

Uran has learned

 

[dark_tranquility]

Fascinating I love it

 

[Moguri]

wow, I would have never expected it!

 

[TrinityJade]

You learn something new every day, thanks to Ahsoka and her threads

 

[Sooyaabean]

I don't know where you find these facts but they're cool facts

 

[snsd2beg]

(Also, could I be added to your language taglist?)

 

[Ahsoka]

(Also, could I be added to your language taglist?)

Added

 

[Ahsoka]

I don't know where you find these facts but they're cool facts

They come form a variety of places. When I encounter a fun fact in the wild I sometimes write it down to remember to make it into a thread

 

[Chohee_nyang]

Never thought how penicillin and pencil were related!