Meaning
-
- A paintbrush.
- A writing utensil with a graphite (commonly referred to as lead) shaft, usually blended with clay, clad in wood, and sharpened to a taper.
- An aggregate or collection of rays of light, especially when diverging from, or converging to, a point.
- 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.
- (obsolete) A small medicated bougie.
- Ellipsis of power of the pencil.
Synonyms
writing instrument
writing brush
writing implement
paint-brush
painter’s brush
small brush of hair
cone of light
hair pencil
light pencil
Frequency
Hyphenated as
pen‧cil
Pronounced as (IPA)
/ˈpɛnsəl/
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”). Not related to pen.
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Notes