A pencil is a drawing and writing instrument.
Before entering fully into the analysis of the term pencil that concerns us now, it is important that we know its etymological origin. Specifically, we can establish that it emanates from Latin, and more precisely from the word “lapis”, which can be translated as “stone”.
A pencil is a writing or drawing instrument that features a graphite rod enclosed in a cylinder of wood or other material. In this way, it is possible to take the cylinder in your hand and move the graphite tip over a paper or other similar surface to leave the lines marked and write or draw.
For example: “My mother gave me a box of colored pencils for my birthday,” “Can I borrow your pencil?” I want to make some notes” , “Look at the drawing my aunt made with a pencil on the napkin” .
Uses of the pencil
There are many professionals who largely resort to using the pencil. This would be the case, for example, of carpenters, who need it to make instructions regarding the measurements with which they have to work on a piece of furniture, or of draftsmen and architects.
However, we cannot forget that children also find in the pencil a necessary instrument both in their classes at school and even at home, to complete their homework.
According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) , pencil is also the generic name given to several mineral substances that are usually used for drawing.
Colored pencils are very popular among children.
Its origin
Historians claim that, in the 17th century , a deposit of graphite was found in England and local settlers soon realized that this material allowed them to easily mark their sheep.
From then on, graphite began to be encapsulated in cylinders to create the instrument we know today as a pencil. It is said that the Italians were the first to use wooden cylinders.
Advantages of the pencil
One of the advantages of pencils is that their lines can be erased . The North American Hymen Lipman was the one who patented the first pencil with an eraser integrated into its end, which occurred in March 1858 .
Nowadays we can find pencils with different characteristics. There are black and colored pencils, with thin or thick lead, with a rounded or hexagonal structure, etc.
The term in cinema
Thus, there is also a Spanish film that refers precisely to the use of the pencil. We are referring to the film “The Carpenter's Pencil” , which is directed by Antón Reixa and was released in 1998.
Luis Tosar, Tristán Ulloa and María Adánez lead the cast of this production, based on the work of the same name by Manuel Rivas, which sets the story in the Spanish Civil War (1936 – 1939). It is within this framework that the relationship between a doctor imprisoned for his republican ideals and his girlfriend is told. A love that will be witnessed by Herbal, the jailer of the prison of the one who has kept a pencil broken in two since the conflict began. This is a man who will be torn between his obligations, his desires for revenge and bitterness, or his feelings.