h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

UK: Pencil
US: Crayon

UK: Crayon
US: Wax Crayon.

Wax Crayon? What do we call wax crayons?

I don't know.
It's a stick of non toxic wax that kids draw with or eat, depending on the mood.

Like Crayola? I thought we just called those crayons.

What do you call pencils then?

Pencils.





Pencils are what have the black "lead" in them - actually graphite.

Colored pencils look like pencils (with the wood covering), but have a colored "lead" in them, most definitely not graphite, but I really don't know what it's made from, although it's definitely not waxy like crayons.


Then there's the whole new genre that came out sometime within the last 20 years or so, of bendable and erasable plastic crayons.

Pencils!

Oh, and in reference to the backlog ... TJ's a Buckeye!

Yes, he is, isn't he?

I was under the impression you lot called pencils, 'crayons.'
My mistake. I wonder where I got that idea from.

The French word for pencil is crayon, isn't it?

Dunno.

Then maybe someone had made some kind of disparaging remark about the American public educational system, accusing us of using crayons...

Maybe. I don't think so. I would have probably guessed what they were talking about it.

Oh well.

That's what we're all here for anyway - to sort out these kinds of misunderstandings.

Why is TJ a buckeye?

Well, as far as I'm concerned, and probably most of the UK agrees with me, coloured pencils are called pencil crayons. And I would normally say "wax crayon" rather than just "crayon", so as not to be ambiguous.

Love it when someone claims to speak for an entire nation...

Never ever heard of pencil crayons. In my part of the uk coloured pencils were called coloured (or colouring) pencils. Crayons, the wax things, were called crayons.

Oh balls, I really thought that was the same everywhere. It's what they were called at skool, and they normally tried to teach us "proper English".

we also had pastels.

and chalks.

In this case, so did we. Although I'm not sure about "chalks" - chalk was a term for the substance, so we'd have "pieces of chalk".