{"id":23973,"date":"2025-04-04T12:14:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T12:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23973"},"modified":"2025-04-04T12:25:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T12:25:50","slug":"bloody-pencils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23973","title":{"rendered":"Bloody Pencils"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One Italian word that I learnt recently is <strong>matita<\/strong>, which means pencil, but looks nothing like words for pencil in other languages I know, so I wondered where it comes from.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Maita<\/strong> [ma\u02c8ti.ta] comes from <strong>ematite<\/strong> (haematite), from Latin <em>(lapis) haematites<\/em> (&#8216;haematite (stone)&#8217;, a red-coloured gem), from Ancient Greek <em>\u03b1\u1f31\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03af\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2<\/em> (haimat\u00edt\u0113s &#8211; bloodlike), from <em>\u03b1\u1f37\u03bc\u03b1<\/em> (ha\u00eema &#8211; blood, race, stock, kin) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/matita\">source<\/a>]. It has been borrowed into Armenian as <strong>\u0574\u0561\u057f\u056b\u057f<\/strong> (matit &#8211; pencil) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%D5%B4%D5%A1%D5%BF%D5%AB%D5%BF#Armenian\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Words from the same roots include <strong>\u03b1\u03af\u03bc\u03b1<\/strong> (a\u00edma &#8211; blood) in Greek, words beginning with <strong>haem(o)-<\/strong> in English, such as <strong>haemocyte<\/strong> (a blood cell), <strong>haemopathy<\/strong> (any disorder or disease of the blood), <strong>haemorrhage<\/strong> (a heavy release of blood within or from the body), and <strong>emoteca<\/strong> (blood bank) in Italian [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%CE%B1%E1%BC%B1%CE%BC%CE%BF-#Ancient_Greek\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/14730981@N08\/12249549384\/in\/photolist-kDBX-7iV5zb-5vmr4p-28BbwTi-xEsQ24-2qDn92H-6qHAJf-jtJ5F-7zYZaP-2kwhwkU-2f9tVM3-wRScWm-7zYZ7T-2pbUSZt-7zYZ1x-jEs9gj-jEs8w3-2kwgZuV-de13NF-99Ex13-GnyRE-2o5wEuw-x2pc-x2oL-63Zyy7-2nS5nG5-dPzKB3-etrW-2iMvaQp-9ADNNv-5vmrnD-2pbUoF3-9AGJ63-2penvDH-2o5wEtz-7HYUSj-dPkkm-2o5rWCF-aYsinp-2o5vLog-9teVnS-2o5wErA-2o5x3Ys-8XZzux-7JiK1c-9w6TaQ-pBKXtp-MRF7k1-dK94v-nmAtca\" title=\"Hematite\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/2827\/12249549384_f9bf6632bd_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"Hematite\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Haematite \/ Hematite<\/strong> (Fe\u2082O\u2083) is a kind of iron oxide, is found in rocks and soils in many places. It occurs naturally in such colours as black, sliver-grey, brown, reddish-brown and red, and rods of haematite were once used as pencils. It is also used to make jewellery and other art.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ochre<\/strong>, a clay containing varying amounts of haematite, which give it a red, brown, yellow or purple colour, has been used as a pigment in decoration, drawing and writing for a very long time. The earliest known examples of human use were found at the Pinnacle Point caves in South Africa, and date from about 164,000 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, <strong>ochre<\/strong> comes from Old French <em>ocre<\/em>, from Latin <em>\u014dchra<\/em> (ochre, yellow earth), from Ancient Greek <em>\u1f64\u03c7\u03c1\u03b1<\/em> (\u1e53khra &#8211; yellow ochre), from <em>\u1f60\u03c7\u03c1\u03cc\u03c2<\/em> (\u014dkhr\u00f3s pale, sallow, wan) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/ochre#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>More information about haematite and ochre:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hematite\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hematite<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ochre\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ochre<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cobalt\/6828691797\/in\/photolist-2aVRpuV-2nqarqR-26GEMsV-e5GNsw-e5GPDy-e5GLYY-e5GL59-bAJLt6-bAJLEX-H5my2v-bpqQat-254F816-Pj3YRE-81iMS9-tsoKh6-2hUAbVi-2hUCCB2-2hUCLuG-ajzSis-BoL25w-4EfMM3-ag5Rnd-ajzSFS-997FuF-Wprx6Q-ajx5je-kyhscP-kyjFfC-22t9brT-jEVSwh-kyjFm9-8e83fp-2pCsHbX-bcK8kR-81iMtb-8x7Pqf-d9wGJA-nnYNrK-2hUJeAA-2jgEhNY-8a8FuP-8a3p7g-oAp2Up-bcK8kF-FzXxiT-27ncZAo-2hUKqKD-cYdmqm-8a3Rtg-6BYGSv\" title=\"Lapis Lazuli, Polished Stones\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/7172\/6828691797_39cc19e2f3_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" alt=\"Lapis Lazuli, Polished Stones\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Another word for pencil in Italian is <strong>lapis<\/strong>, which also means sanguine (blood-red, blood-coloured), and comes from Latin <em>lapis (haematites)<\/em> ((haematite) stone), from Proto-Italic <em>*lapets<\/em> (stone). Related words in other languages include <strong>llapis<\/strong> (pencil) in Catalan, <strong>lapes<\/strong> (pencil) in Maltese, <strong>l\u00e1piz<\/strong> (pencil) in Spanish, and <strong>lapidary<\/strong> (a person who cuts and polishes, engraves, or deals in gems and precious stones), and <strong>lapis lazuli<\/strong> (a deep-blue stone used in jewellery [see above], and to make pigment) in English [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/lapis#Italian\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>You can find out about the origins of the English word <strong>pencil<\/strong> in the post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23061\">Pens and Pencils<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One Italian word that I learnt recently is matita, which means pencil, but looks nothing like words for pencil in other languages I know, so I wondered where it comes from. Maita [ma\u02c8ti.ta] comes from ematite (haematite), from Latin (lapis) haematites (&#8216;haematite (stone)&#8217;, a red-coloured gem), from Ancient Greek \u03b1\u1f31\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03af\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2 (haimat\u00edt\u0113s &#8211; bloodlike), from \u03b1\u1f37\u03bc\u03b1 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,205,94,104,107,118,128,10,15,272,34,46,64,78],"tags":[164,158,376,377,309,138,380,382,375,378,281,379],"class_list":["post-23973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-greek-","category-armenian-","category-catalan","category-english","category-etymology","category-greek","category-italian","category-language","category-latin","category-maltese-malti","category-old-french","category-proto-italic","category-spanish","category-words-and-phrases","tag-english","tag-etymology","tag-haematite","tag-hematite","tag-italian","tag-language","tag-lapis","tag-lapis-lazuli","tag-matita","tag-ochre","tag-omniglot","tag-pencil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23973","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=23973"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23982,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23973\/revisions\/23982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}