ink-pen

Mark A. Mandel mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU
Mon Nov 15 16:30:27 UTC 2004


Michael McKernan <mckernan at LOCALNET.COM> says:
   >>>>>
After some thought, I've realized that my own familiarity with the term 'ink
pen' comes from my early elementary school education in a Catholic parochial
school (1957-62), where the nuns required us to write most assignments using
what we commonly called an 'ink pen' (rather than ballpoint).  We had two
alternatives:  the (then) old-fashioned 'fountain pen,' which had a
mechanism for taking up ink refills from an ink bottle; or the new-fangled
(and more popular with us) 'catridge pen', which was refilled by using
small, plastic, ink cartridges.  (Both of these qualified as 'ink pens',
while the forbidden 'ballpoint' pen did not, even though we might argue that
it also contained ink.)
 <<<<<

Where I heard the term "ink pen", Harlan County, Kentucky, Summer 1965, I am
pretty sure that it referred to any pens, including ballpoint pens.

-- Mark
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]



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