pen

Meanings

Noun

• An enclosure (enclosed area) used to contain domesticated animals, especially sheep or cattle.
• Penitentiary, i.e. a state or federal prison for convicted felons.
• The bullpen.
• A tool, originally made from a feather but now usually a small tubular instrument, containing ink used to write or make marks.
• A writer, or his style.
• Marks of ink left by a pen.
• A light pen.
• The internal cartilage skeleton of a squid, shaped like a pen.
• A feather, especially one of the flight feathers of a bird, angel etc.
• A wing.
• A female swan.
• Penalty.

Verb

• To enclose in a pen.
• To write (an article, a book, etc.).

Related

Similar words

• swaness

Origin

• From Middle English pen, penne, from Old English penn, from Proto-Germanic *pennō, *pannijō, from Proto-Indo-European *bend-. Related to pin.
• Sense “prison” originally figurative extension to “enclosure for persons” (1845), later influenced by penitentiary, being analyzed as an abbreviation (1884).
• , derived from penn (see above). Akin to Low German pennen.
• Image:Ballpoint-pen-parts.jpg|thumb|right|A [[ballpoint pen, showing assembly.]]
• From Middle English penne, from Anglo-Norman penne, from Old French penne, from Latin penna, from Proto-Indo-European *péth₂r̥, from *peth₂- (from which petition). Proto-Indo-European base also root of *petra-, from which Ancient Greek πτερόν (whence pterodactyl), Sanskrit पत्रम्, Old Church Slavonic перо, Old Norse fjǫðr, Old English feðer (Modern English feather); note the /p/ → /f/ Germanic sound change.
• See feather and πέτομαι for more.
• Origin uncertain. Compare hen.