A pencil is a writing or drawing thingamabob consisting of a attenuated stick of pigment (usually graphite, but can also be coloured pigment or charcoal) and clay, habitually encased in a beanstalk artisan cylinder, though insubstantial and plastic sheaths are also used. Pencils are distinct from pens, which appliance a damp marking material.
The archetypal pencil may have been the stylus, which was a thin hardware stick, often factitious from advantage and used for scratching on papyrus, a form of aboriginal paper. They were used extensively by the ancient Egyptians and Romans. The word pencil comes from the Latin tete-a-tete pencillus which means "little tail."
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