Dictionary

keelyvine pen en · NOUN

Etymology

Compare Scottish Gaelic cìl (“ruddle”).

Meanings

1. (Scotland, dialectal, obsolete) A pencil of black lead.
   • Perhaps he knew that “fules," as the Shepherd says, dreaded his "keelavine pen," and so abstained from a source of offence. 1897, Andrew Lang, The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart - Volume 1, page 342:
   • A strip of lead in a case of wood or a strong reed, resembling the drawing-pencil to which we are now accustomed, is the Keelyvine-pen of North Britain; and an invention which is probably not older than the commencement of the last century. 1857, Richard Thomson, A Lecture on some of the most characteristic features of Illuminated Manuscripts from the VIII. to the XVIII. century., page 48:
   • This article, if finished at all, must be written with the keelavine pen on the backs of old letters—whereof, thank heaven! we have scores unanswered—by fits and snatches, as we repose from our labours on the gree-sward;. 1846 November 14, Christopher North, “Wild Sports and Natural History of the Highlands”, in The Anglo American, volume 8, number 4, page 85:
   • Put up your pocket-book and your keelyvine pen then, for I downa speak out an' ye hae writing materials in your hands 1816, [Walter Scott], The Antiquary. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

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