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Word for Wednesday: Pencil


Our Word for Wednesday theme for September is stationery. 

Stationery comes from the Latin ‘stationarius’ which means ‘tradesman who sells from a station or shop’. The word was first used to describe ‘the articles sold by a stationer’ in 1727.

Our first stationery-themed word is pencil. 

A pencil is a thin cylindrical pointed writing implement. 

The word entered English in the mid-fourteenth century as ‘pencel’ and was used to describe a type of fine brush made of camel hair which was used by artists. ‘Pencel’ comes from the Old French ‘pincel’ which comes from the Latin ‘pencillus’. ‘Pencillus’ literally translates to ‘little tail’. 

Fine brushes were used for writing until the sixteenth century when sticks of graphite started being used to mark things. 



02 Sep 2020
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Word, Pencil, Stationery, Wednesday, Latin, Writing

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One of the students has put in a huge amount of effort in completing Spellzone at least 3 times a week since his arrival with us in January. Looking at his scores after the latest GL testing, his standardised score has risen from 99 to 131. This is a truly phenomenal result. I just wanted to share the best result I have ever seen.

Terrie Penrose-Toms, Casterton College

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