Pen vs Desk - What's the difference?
pen | desk |
An enclosed area used to contain domesticated animals, especially sheep or cattle.
A place to confine a person; a prison cell.
(baseball) The bullpen.
To enclose in a pen.
* Milton
A tool, originally made from a feather but now usually a small tubular instrument, containing ink used to write or make marks.
(figurative) A writer, or his style.
* Fuller
A light pen.
(zoology) The internal cartilage skeleton of a squid, shaped like a pen.
A feather, especially one of the flight feathers of a bird, angel etc.
* 1590 , Edmund Spendser, The Faerie Queene , I.xi:
(poetic) A wing.
To write (an article, a book, etc.).
A table, frame, or case, usually with sloping top, but often with flat top, for the use of writers and readers. It often has a drawer or repository underneath.
* , chapter=5
, title= A reading table or lectern to support the book from which the liturgical service is read, differing from the pulpit from which the sermon is preached; also (especially in the United States), a pulpit. Hence, used symbolically for the clerical profession.
As nouns the difference between pen and desk
is that pen is an enclosed area used to contain domesticated animals, especially sheep or cattle while desk is a table, frame, or case, usually with sloping top, but often with flat top, for the use of writers and readers. It often has a drawer or repository underneath.As verbs the difference between pen and desk
is that pen is to enclose in a pen while desk is to shut up, as in a desk; to treasure.pen
English
(wikipedia pen)Etymology 1
From (etyl) . More at pin. Sense “prison” originally figurative extension to enclosure for persons (1845), later influenced byNoun
(en noun)- There are two steers in the third pen .
- They caught him with a stolen horse, and he wound up in the pen again.
- Two righties are up in the pen .
Verb
- Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (Modern English (m)); note the /p/ ? /f/ Germanic sound change. See feather and for more.Noun
(en noun)- He took notes with a pen .
- He has a sharp pen .
- those learned pens
- And eke the pennes , that did his pineons bynd, / Were like mayne-yards, with flying canuas lynd, / With which whenas him list the ayre to beat
- (Milton)
Derived terms
* ball pen * ball-point pen * border pen * bull pen * cartridge pen * felt-tip pen * fountain pen * goose pen * lettering pen * pen cancellation * pen feather * pen-mate * penmanship * pen name * pen pal * pen-pusher * poison pen * you don't dip your pen in company inkVerb
(penn)Etymology 3
Origin uncertain.Etymology 4
Shortned form of penaltyReferences
desk
English
Noun
(en noun) (wikipedia desk)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.}}
