pencil

It’s never not surprising when an etymology takes you from somewhere mundane and decidedly un-sexy to somewhere sexual. Pencil came into English in the fourteenth century as pensel, ”an artist’s small, fine brush of camel hair,” which in turn came from the Old French pincel, “an artist’s paintbrush,” which goes back to the Latin penicillus, “painter’s brush, hair pencil.” Presumably because the construction included hair, that Latin term literally means “little tail” and is a diminutive of peniculus, “brush,” which is itself a diminutive of penis, which Etymonline defines as “tail.” Which is surprising to me, a human man.

Penis has been English’s word for the male sex organ since the 1670s, and that traces back to the same Latin, which apparently first meant “tail” and then, later, meant the male sex organ, apparently as a result of metaphorical extension. Etymonline also notes that the proper plural of penis, per Latin rules, is penes. Hence my memoir title, Penes From Heaven.