Re: OT More pens (was Re: Phoneme winnowing continues)

Quoting Tristan McLeay <kesuari@...>:

> Andreas Johansson wrote:
>
> >What I do buy, is extra graphite rods.
> >
> >
> I've worked out what's wrong with that: those things (as well as the
> drawing part of any pencil) are generally called, hereabouts at least,
> 'leads', in spite of them not being lead. (Wooden) pencils used to
> write
> with (rather than colored ones) are called 'grey leads', though they
> used to be called 'black leads', again, in spite of their not being
> lead. Why they're called lead is beyond me.
I think I know why; the Swedish term for the this stuff is _blyerts_ (as
material; an individual 'lead' is a _stift_), which is from German
_Bleierz_ "lead ore", because graphite was confused with lead ore. The English
term presumably has the same origin.

                                                          Andreas