pencil

English

Selection of colored pencils.

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman and Old French pincil (see the variant pincel, which gave rise to Modern French pinceau (“paintbrush”)), from Latin pēnicillum, diminutive of pēniculus (“brush”), itself a diminutive of pēnis (“tail; penis”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛnsəl/
• (also) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛnsɪl/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio:

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• Rhymes: -ɛnsəl
• Hyphenation: pen‧cil

Noun

pencil (plural pencils)

1. A writing utensil with a graphite (commonly referred to as lead) shaft, usually blended with clay, clad in wood, and sharpened to a taper.
2. (obsolete) A paintbrush.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.0:

     But living art may not least part expresse, / Nor life-resembling pencill it can paynt […].

   • Template:RQ:Florio Montaigne Essayes
3. (geometry) A family of geometric objects with a common property, such as the set of lines that pass through a given point in a projective plane.
4. (optics) An aggregate or collection of rays of light, especially when diverging from, or converging to, a point.
   • 1863, The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal

     When, by the pencil becoming oblique to the surface, the vergency produced on the pencil becomes changed, the primary and secondary focal points, V and H, separate […]

5. (medicine, archaic) A small medicated bougie.

Derived terms

• carpenter's pencil
• china pencil
• colored pencil/coloured pencil
• coloring pencil/colouring pencil
• color pencil/colour pencil
• golf pencil
• grease pencil
• kohl pencil
• lead pencil
• mechanical pencil
• number 2 pencil
• pencil crayon
• pencil detonator
• pencil lead
• pencil pusher
• pencil sharpener
• pencil skirt
• pencil stub
• pencil-thin
• propelling pencil
• time pencil
• wax pencil

 

Translations

graphite writing-instrument

• Adyghe: къэлэм (qɛlɛm)
• Afrikaans: potlood (af)
• Albanian: laps (sq), kalem (sq)
• Amharic: እርሳስ (ʾərsas)
• Arabic: قَلَم (ar) m (qalam), قَلَم رَصَاص m (qalam raṣāṣ)
• Armenian: մատիտ (hy) (matit)
• Assamese: কাঠ-পেঞ্চিল (kath-peñsil), পেঞ্চিল (peñsil)
• Asturian: llapiceru (ast) m, llápiz (ast) m
• Aymara: lapisa
• Azerbaijani: karandaş (az)
• Bashkir: ҡәләм (qələm)
• Basque: arkatz, lapitz
• Belarusian: ало́вак m (alóvak), каранда́ш m (karandáš)
• Bengali: পেনসিল (penośil), অঙ্কনী (oṅkoni)
• Bole: pensur
• Bulgarian: мо́лив (bg) m (móliv)
• Burmese: ခဲတံ (my) (hkai:tam)
• Catalan: llapis (ca) m
• Central Dusun: pinsil
• Central Melanau: pisil
• Central Sierra Miwok: sykýˀ-ja-
• Cherokee: ᏗᎪᏪᎶᏗ (digowelodi)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 鉛筆／铅笔 (yue) (jyun⁴ bat¹), 铅笔 (jyun⁴ bat¹)

  Taishanese: 鉛筆／铅笔 (yue) (jyun⁴ bat¹), 铅笔 (yon³ bit²)

  Dungan: гәран (gəran), гэран (geran)

  Gan: 鉛筆／铅笔 (nyyon⁴ 'bit⁶), 铅笔 (nyyon⁴ 'bit⁶)

  Hakka: 鉛筆／铅笔, 铅笔 (yèn-pit)

  Jin: 鉛筆／铅笔 (qie¹ bieh⁴), 铅笔 (qie¹ bieh⁴)

  Mandarin: 铅笔 (zh) (qiānbǐ)

  Teochew: 鉛筆／铅笔 (zh-min-nan), 铅笔 (ing5 big4)

  Wu: 鉛筆／铅笔, 铅笔 (khe piq)

  Xiang: 鉛筆／铅笔 (yenn² bi⁶), 铅笔 (yan² bi⁶)

• Crimean Tatar: qarandaş
• Czech: tužka (cs) f, olůvko n (historical)
• Danish: blyant (da) c
• Dhivehi: ފަންސުރު (dv) (fan̊suru)
• Dutch: potlood (nl) n
• Esperanto: krajono (eo)
• Estonian: pliiats (et)
• Faroese: blýantur (fo) m
• Finnish: lyijykynä (fi)
• French: crayon (fr) m
• Galician: lapis (gl) m
• Georgian: ფანქარი (pankari)
• German: (non-colored) Bleistift (de) m, (colored) Buntstift (de) m
• Greek: μολύβι (el) n (molývi)
• Greenlandic: aqerluusaq
• Guaraní: haiha
• Gujarati: સીસાપેન (sīsāpen)
• Haitian Creole: kreyon
• Hausa: fensir (ha)
• Hebrew: עיפרון \ עִפָּרוֹן (he) m (iparón)
• Hindi: पेन्सिल f (pensil), अंकनी f (aṅknī)
• Hungarian: ceruza (hu)
• Hunsrik: Bleistift m, Lappis m
• Icelandic: blýantur (is) m
• Ido: krayono (io)
• Indonesian: pensil (id), potlot (id)
• Interlingua: stilo, stilo de graphite
• Inuktitut: ᐊᓪᓛᑦ (allaat)
• Irish: peann luaidhe m
• Italian: matita (it) f, lapis (it) m, portamina (it) m
• Japanese: 鉛筆 (ja) (えんぴつ, enpitsu)
• Javanese: potlot
• Kabardian: къэрэндащ (qɛrɛndaś)
• Kalmyk: харанда (xaranda)
• Kannada: ಪೆನ್ಸಿಲ್ (pensil)
• Kazakh: қалам (kk) (qalam), қарындаш (kk) (qaryndaş)
• Khmer: ខ្មៅដៃ (khmaw day)
• Korean: 연필 (ko) (yeonpil) (鉛筆)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: pênûsê (ku)

  Sorani:

• Kyrgyz: калем (ky) (kalem), карандаш (ky) (karandaş)
• Lao: ສໍ (lo) (sǭ), ສໍດຳ (sǭ dam)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latin: plumbum (la), graphis
• Latvian: zīmulis (lv) m
• Limburgish: blieèrsstek m
• Lithuanian: pieštukas (lt) m
• Luxembourgish: Bläistëft (lb) n, Kräijong n
• Lü: ᦔᦲᧉᦎᦱᧃᧈ (ṗii²ṫaan¹)
• Macedonian: молив m (moliv)
• Malagasy: pensily (mg)
• Malay: pensel (ms)

  Jawi: ڤينسيل

• Malayalam: പെൻസിൽ (ml) (peṉsil)
• Maltese: lapes m
• Manx: penn leoaie m, pensyl m
• Maori: pene rākau
• Marathi: पेन्सिल (pensil)
• Marshallese: pinjeļ
• Mirandese: lhápeç m
• Mongolian: харандаа (mn) (xarandaa)
• Navajo: beeʼakʼeʼelchíhí
• Nepali: सिसाकलम (sisākalam)
• Norman: crèyon m
• Norwegian: blyant (no)
• Occitan: gredon (oc) m
• Oriya: ପେନ୍ସିଲ୍ (or) (pensil)
• Ossetian: кърандас (k’randas)
• Pashto: پنسل (pensél)
• Persian: مداد (fa) (medâd)
• Polish: ołówek (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: lápis (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਪੈਨਸਿਲ (painsil)
• Romani:

  Kalo Finnish Romani: blyijako ranniboskero

• Romanian: creion (ro) n
• Russian: каранда́ш (ru) m (karandáš)
• Samoan: penitala
• Scots: pincil
• Scottish Gaelic: peansail m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: оловка f, писаљка f

  Roman: olovka (sh) f, pisaljka (sh) f

• Sinhalese: පැන්සල (si) (pænsala)
• Slovak: ceruza f, ceruzka f
• Slovene: svinčnik (sl) m
• Somali: qalin qori
• Spanish: lápiz (es) m
• Sundanese: potlot
• Swahili: penseli
• Swedish: blyertspenna (sv) c, penna (sv) c
• Sylheti: ꠇꠣꠉ꠆ꠎꠤ (xagzi)
• Tagalog: lapis
• Tajik: қалам (tg) (qalam), мидод (tg) (midod)
• Tamil: எழுதுகோல் (ta) (eḻutukōl)
• Tatar: каләм (tt) (qaläm)
• Telugu: పెన్సిలు (te) (pensilu)
• Tetum: lapis
• Thai: ดินสอ (th) (din-sɔ̌ɔ)
• Tibetan: ཞ་སྨྱུག (zha smyug)
• Tigrinya: ርሳስ (rəsas)
• Turkish: kurşun kalem (tr), kalem (tr)
• Turkmen: galam
• Ukrainian: оліве́ць (uk) m (olivécʹ)
• Urdu: پنسل f (pinsil)
• Uyghur: قېرىنداش (ug) (qërindash)
• Uzbek: qalam (uz), karandash
• Vietnamese: bút chì (vi)
• Vilamovian: błajśtift n
• Volapük: stib (vo)
• Welsh: pensil (cy) m
• West Frisian: potlead (fy) n
• Yakut: харандаас (qarandaas)
• Yiddish: בלײַער m (blayer), בלײַשטיפֿט m (blayshtift)
• Yup'ik: kalantaassaaq
• Zazaki: qelem f
• Zhuang: yienzbit, yenzbiz

slate writing-instrument

• Estonian: krihvel
• German: Griffel (de) m, Tafelstift m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: κοντύλι (el) n (kontýli)
• Volapük: gliv (vo)

Verb

pencil (third-person singular simple present pencils, present participle (UK) pencilling or (US) penciling, simple past and past participle (UK) pencilled or (US) penciled)

1. (transitive) To write (something) using a pencil.

   I penciled (BrE: pencilled) a brief reminder in my notebook.

2. (transitive) To mark with, or as if with, a pencil.
   • 1852, The Ark, and Odd Fellows' Western Magazine

     It pencilled each flower with rich and variegated hues, and threw over its exuberant foliage a vesture of emerald green.

Derived terms

• pencil in

Further reading

• pencil on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Malay

Adjective

pĕncil

1. to be isolated, separated

Derived terms

Affixed terms and other derivations

Regular affixed derivations:

• pemencil [agentive / qualitative / instrumental / abstract / measure] (peN-)
• pencilan [resultative / locative / collective / variety / verbal noun / fruit] (-an)
• kepencilan [abstract / locative] (ke-an)
• pencil-pencil [reduplication] (redup)
• perpencil [causative passive] (peR-)
• pencilkan [causative benefactive] (-kan)
• pencili [causative (locative) benefactive] (-i)
• terpencil [agentless action] (teR-)