Latin for feather, and the root of our word pen.
The quill pen
“Did people really write with feathers?”
From about the 6th century until the mid-1800s, the main writing tool in Europe was the quill: the hollow shaft of a large bird’s flight feather, hardened and then cut to a point with a small knife. That knife is why we still call a small folding knife a penknife. Goose feathers were the usual choice; swan and later turkey feathers were used too.
Tradition held that feathers from a bird’s left wing suited right-handed writers, because the feather curves away from the writer’s line of sight. A quill wore down quickly and had to be recut again and again.
The word pen itself comes from the Latin penna, meaning feather.
Change came from Birmingham. In the 1820s, manufacturers there began mass-producing steel nibs by machine. Steel kept its point far longer, and was cheap enough for schools and offices everywhere. By the 1850s more than half the steel nibs made in the world came from Birmingham, and the quill slowly faded from everyday use.
Look closer: Thomas Jefferson is said to have kept geese at his home, Monticello, so he would not run out of pens.