A nib is the point of a thing, such as a spear. More commonly it means the point of a pen, especially a fountain pen. Before ball points were invented, a common student problem was a pen with a broken nib.
The word nib comes from a 16th century word meaning the beak of a bird. In more modern times, nib has come to refer to the pieces of the cocoa bean that remain after it has been hulled, roasted, and crushed. Cocoa nibs are the very essence of what we think as chocolate, and yet, ironically, the cocoa nib needs sugar and cocoa butter to temper its bitterness.
