WotD: pencil

[muckefuck]

Per request of caprinus.

1. der Bleistift
2. het potlood
3. el lápiz
4. el llapis
5. le crayon mine
6. y pensil
7. an peann luaidhe, an pionsail
8. ołówek
9. 연필 (鉛筆)
10. 鉛筆 qiānbǐ

Notes: caprinus requested this because he was curious how many words in other languages shared with Polish a derivation from the word for "lead". As it turns out, roughly half: Chinese 鉛筆 is an exact equivalent of German Bleistift, i.e. a compound of "lead" and "writing instrument". The Korean is a borrowing of the Chinese (though don't ask me to explain the incongruity in initial consonants) and the earlier Dutch term, loodstift, was equivalent to the German. The current name literally translates as "pot lead". The first of the two Irish terms is literally "pen of lead", but--as with most things--the borrowing from English is probably more common in the contemporary language.

On the other hand, you have Catalan llapis and Spanish lápiz, which both ultimately derive from Latin lapis "stone" via Italian (though the preferred term nowadays is matita). Similarly, French crayon actually derives from craie "chalk". Of course, English pencil and its derivatives (e.g. Welsh pensil) infamously descends from a diminutive of Latin penis.

Comments

[bunj.livejournal.com]

Mein Bleistift ist gross und gelb.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

ICH HABE KEINE ZEIT, TENNIS ZU SPIELEN!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I really hear le crayon for the everyday writing instrument a lot more than le crayon mine -- it's kind of like saying "lead pencil", I think.

[bunj.livejournal.com]

Es tut mir leid, dieses ist nicht mein Handtuch.

[wwidsith.livejournal.com]

And "pencil" used to mean "paintbrush", which kind of makes the derivation make a little more sense.