Pen vs Fence - What's the difference?
pen | fence |
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A tool, originally made from a feather but now usually a small tubular instrument, containing ink used to write or make marks.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 thin, human-constructed barrier which separates two pieces of land or a house perimeter.
*1865 , (Horatio Alger), , Ch.XVII:
*:There was a weak place in the fence separating the two inclosures
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=52, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= A middleman for transactions of stolen goods.
*
*:The Bat—they called him the Bat.. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.
#The place whence such a middleman operates.
Skill in oral debate.
The art or practice of fencing.
*1599 , (William Shakespeare), ,
*:I bruised my shin th' other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence
A guard or guide on machinery.
(lb) A barrier, for example an emotional barrier.
*1980 , (ABBA), (The Winner Takes It All)
A memory barrier.
(lb) To enclose, contain or separate by building fence.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:O thou wall!dive in the earth, / And fence not Athens.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:a sheepcote fenced about with olive trees
*1856 , , ,
*:Here are twenty acres of land, and it is all you can properly farm, unless you have more help than yourself. Now fence and cultivate it, and you can make an abundant living.
(lb) To defend or guard.
*(John Milton) (1608-1674)
*:To fence my ear against thy sorceries.
(lb) To engage in the selling or buying of stolen goods.
*
*:The Bat—they called him the Bat.. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.
To engage in (the sport) fencing.
*1921 , (Rafael Sabatini), ,
*:Challenges are flying right and left between these bully-swordsmen, these spadassinicides, and poor devils of the robe who have never learnt to fence with anything but a quill.
To jump over a fence.
In transitive terms the difference between pen and fence
is that pen is to write (an article, a book, etc.) while fence is to engage in the selling or buying of stolen goods.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
fence
English
(wikipedia fence)Noun
(en noun)The new masters and commanders, passage=From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences , walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.}}
- I was in your arms / Thinking I belonged there
