pencil

Where it comes from

Pencil ordinarily means a narrow writing or drawing instrument with a graphite or coloured core. Pencil came through Anglo-French pincel from Latin penicillus, an artist's brush and literally a little tail. Penicillus was a diminutive related to peniculus, a brush, and ultimately to Latin penis in its older sense of tail. The medieval English pencil was a fine artist's brush, often described as a small brush of animal hair.

How the meaning developed

When graphite sticks became writing and drawing tools in the sixteenth century, the familiar name for a pointed drawing tool transferred from the brush to the graphite instrument.