Where does “pencil” come from?

Pencil comes from Old French pincil, from Latin peniculus meaning a small brush, ultimately derived from Latin penis meaning tail, from Proto-Indo-European pes-.

pencil (English): A paintbrush

Definitions

  1. A paintbrush

Ancestry of “pencil”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchpincil—
2Latinpēniculus—
3Latin-culusAlternative form of -ulus; added to a noun to...
4Proto-Italic*-kelosDiminutive suffix

Words derived from “pencil”

Every word from Proto-Italic *-kelos →Every word from Latin -culus →Every word from Latin pēniculus →