Pencil Part 2

History

• Pencil, from Old French pincel, a small paintbrush, from Latin penicillus a "little tail" (see penis—pincellus is Latin from the post-classical period[1]) is an artist's fine brush of camel hair, also used for writing before modern lead or chalk pencils; the meaning of "graphite writing implement" apparently evolved late in the 16th century.[2] Though the archetypal pencil was an artist's brush, thestylus, a thin metal stick used for scratching in papyrus or wax tablets, was used extensively by the Romans,[3] and for palm-leaf manuscripts.