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.
But living art may not least part expresse, / Nor life-resembling pencill it can paynt[…].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Prologue”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 389:
why is it not lawfull for every man to pourtray himself with his pen, as it was for him to doe it with a pensell?1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
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He requested three things of Sir Joshua Reynolds:—To forgive him thirty pounds which he had borrowed of him; to read the Bible; and never to use his pencil on a Sunday.1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford, published 2008, page 1390:
2
A writing utensil with a graphite (commonly referred to as lead) shaft, usually blended with clay, clad in wood, and sharpened to a taper.
3
Engineering, Natural sciences, Optics, Physical sciences, Physics An aggregate or collection of rays of light, especially when diverging from, or converging to, a point.
4
Geometry, Mathematics, Sciences 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.
When, by the pencil becoming oblique to the surface, the vergency produced on the pencil becomes changed, the primary and secondary focal points, V and H, separate […]1863, The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal:
A drillable robot is capable of placing its end link in any orientation in the pencil of planes containing its first link.1987, R. E. Trahan, Applied Identification, Modelling and Simulation, page 107:
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Let l and m be two hyperparallel lines. All the transversals to l and m that form congruent corresponding angles with l and m lie in a pencil.2012, G. E. Martin, The Foundations of Geometry and the Non-Euclidean Plane, page 357:
Biology, Natural sciences, Zoology A small, thin tuft of hairs or feathers.
It is almost entirely of a slatey colour, with yellow bill and feet, but the feathers of the rump and upper tail-coverts each terminate in a rigid, glossy pencil or tuft of a vivid crimson.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 431:
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Gambling, GamesAbbreviation, Ellipsis Ellipsis of power of the pencil.
And most important of all, Cully now had 'The Pencil', that most coveted of Las Vegas powers.1978, Mario Puzo, Fools Die:
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.
1
To write (something) using a pencil.
I penciled (BrE: pencilled) a brief reminder in my notebook.
She had hardly got back when she encountered a piece by Robert Trewe in the new number of her favourite magazine, which must have been written almost immediately before her visit to Solentsea, for it contained the very couplet she had seen pencilled on the wallpaper by the bed, and Mrs. Hooper had declared to be recent.1888, Thomas Hardy, “An Imaginative Woman”, in Wessex Tales:
2
To mark with, or as if with, a pencil.
It pencilled each flower with rich and variegated hues, and threw over its exuberant foliage a vesture of emerald green.1852, The Ark, and Odd Fellows' Western Magazine: