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Nobody invented it, the word pen simply evolved over time like many words in English.

The English word "pen" began with the classical Latin word for a feather: penna.

This word became penne in Norman French in around the 10th century AD, when goose feathers began to be used to make quill pens, using only the central rib of the feather. At that time the Saxon people of England were mostly using reeds to make their pens and these had a very different name.

When the Normans invaded England in 1066 they naturally brought their language and technology with them and gradually the Anglo-Norman word penne was taken into Middle English as the everyday term for any writing instrument (including quills, pencils and a metal stylus for scribing on wax tablets). By the end of the medieval period the word had shortened to pen and its meaning was restricted to a quill pen made from a feather - the kind of writing instrument that was still being used at the beginning of the 19th century.

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14y ago

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