4 ms·
By that description, apparently ‘rollerball’ pens are the default where I am. The staple experience all through my youth was of having to doodle with the dry pe
by aasasd 6y ago
By that description, apparently ‘rollerball’ pens are the default where I am. The staple experience all through my youth was of having to doodle with the dry pen for a few seconds before it begins to emit ink properly (my language even has a word for this act). Spare pens or cartridges were a must, in case the first one just gives up.
Then I discovered oil-based Pilot pens: those can lay around unused for months or years and then will write as soon as I need that. So after moving out, I bought a couple dozens of them and sprinkled them around the apartment and in my backpack. Never even knew if anyone else makes pens with oil-based ink.
I did, however, encounter one of such pens leaking. But one in about fifteen years seems pretty good.
- mssundaram 6y ago> doodle with the dry pen for a few seconds before it begins to emit ink properly (my language even has a word for this act) That's so cool, can you share the word?
- aasasd 6y agoIt's Russian ‘расписывать’, specifically ‘расписывать ручку’. Vaguely translated as ‘make-write the pen’, and derived from ‘писать’—‘to write’. Notably, I don't think any other instrument needed that action, so the word is only used with pens. The word has another meaning of decorating something with paint. But despite the identical constituent parts, the underlying etymology is slightly different, as far as I understand: ‘make-write’ is closer in meaning to the similar ‘расписываться’—either ‘to sign’ or ‘while writing a text, get in the flow of writing’. This inflectional derivation is pretty much identical to how English has hundreds of compound words where simple verbs are smacked together with adverbs, e.g. ‘put on’, ‘put up’ and such—most of them with entirely idiomatic meanings.
- mssundaram 6y agoThanks very much for explaining!