{"id":19437,"date":"2020-07-08T19:53:59","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T19:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=19437"},"modified":"2025-04-04T12:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T12:03:09","slug":"flowing-pencils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=19437","title":{"rendered":"Flowing Pencils"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today while looking into the origins of the Dutch word for pencil &#8211; <strong>potlood<\/strong> [p\u0254t.lo\u02d0t] &#8211; I found some interesting connections to words other languages.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/53608445@N03\/5285340987\/in\/photolist-943KJK-4qTdji-o5ta5t-byQB63-tnvsV-rzVYMJ-7GBSTp-qmfYMG-4gh2dy-suSozj-cbskX3-7FbY6H-EcmqXE-eRyS4c-2hk77ut-82vj5B-82yqHj-5mGtCh-82yq8s-2h56t6t-2eg25hQ-Yx6iM5-2e2QsZ6-24G4kS2-TsiHD9-ggKngL-2cMbfJj-2cMbfoQ-82yrqu-82ypxs-7pV24H-89YdBs-21K4akM-2gjC6SQ-MshScu-pN7rzE-rc5tH3-EZC4Rx-gyQeLe-sn71Q2-oeAWi9-CaVHou-xcmnQi-6aMypJ-2hvV9Fs-23FeqQq-2itx2YJ-7Gu1Fb-YD6gXx-2irEtmf\" title=\"potlood\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5007\/5285340987_ae67e8e7db_z.jpg\" alt=\"potlood\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Potlood<\/strong> also means crayon, and comes from <em>pot<\/em> (jar, pot) &amp; <em>lood<\/em> (lead, plumb bob). Apparently it was originally a name for graphite, and was used for glazing pots, but was misidentified as a form of lead [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/potlood\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Other words featuring <strong>pot<\/strong> include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>potloodetui = pencil case<\/li>\n<li>potloodslijper = pencil sharpener<\/li>\n<li>bloempot = flower pot, planter<\/li>\n<li>doofpot = cover-up (&#8220;deaf pot&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li>potdoof = stone deaf, completely deaf<\/li>\n<li>fooienpot = tip jar, stock pot<\/li>\n<li>kookpot = cooking pot, saucepan, cauldron<\/li>\n<li>stamppot= stew, mash, stamppot (a traditional Dutch dish made of potatoes mashed with one or several vegetables)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Lood<\/strong> comes from the Middle Dutch <em>l\u00f4ot<\/em> (lead), from Old Dutch <em>*l\u014dt<\/em>, from Proto-Germanic <em>*laud\u0105<\/em> (lead), from the Proto-Celtic <em>*loudom<\/em> (lead), ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European <em>*plewd-<\/em> (to fly, flow, run) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/lood#Dutch\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>For the same Proto-Celtic root we get <em>luaidhe<\/em>, which is lead in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, <em>leoaie<\/em> (lead) in Manx, the English word <strong>lead<\/strong>, and related words in other Germanic languages [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic\/laud%C4%85\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Words for lead in Welsh (<strong>plwm<\/strong>), Cornish (<strong>plomm \/ plobm<\/strong>) and Breton (<strong>plom<\/strong>), come from the Latin <em>plumbum<\/em> (lead (metal), lead pipe, pencil), which is also the root of the English words <strong>plumb<\/strong>, <strong>plumber<\/strong> and <strong>plumbing<\/strong> [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/plumbum#Latin\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>A plumber in Dutch is a <strong>loodgieter<\/strong> [\u02c8lo\u02d0t\u02ccxi.t\u0259r] and plumbing is <strong>loodgieterswerk<\/strong> &#8211; a <strong>gieter<\/strong> [\u02c8\u0263i.t\u0259r] is a person who pours, e.g. a caster, or a watering can, so a <strong>loodgieter<\/strong> is someone who pours lead or a lead caster [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/gieter\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today while looking into the origins of the Dutch word for pencil &#8211; potlood [p\u0254t.lo\u02d0t] &#8211; I found some interesting connections to words other languages. Potlood also means crayon, and comes from pot (jar, pot) &amp; lood (lead, plumb bob). Apparently it was originally a name for graphite, and was used for glazing pots, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,102,104,107,127,10,23,182,43,44,45,56,77,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cornish","category-dutch","category-english","category-etymology","category-irish","category-language","category-manx","category-middle-dutch-dietsc-duutsch","category-proto-celtic","category-proto-germanic","category-proto-indo-european","category-scottish-gaelic","category-welsh","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19437"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23972,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19437\/revisions\/23972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}