I, Pencil: Innumerable Antecedent

The unremarkable pencil — an everyday writing implement used since the 1800s — seems common and ordinary. But the story of this simple tool is far from plain!

This list covers vocabulary from "Innumerable Antecedent."

Here are links to our lists for the book: List 1, List 2, List 3
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. antecedent
    anything that precedes something similar in time
    Just as you cannot trace your family tree back very far, so is it impossible for me to name and explain all my antecedents.
  2. contemplate
    reflect deeply on a subject
    Now contemplate all the saws and trucks and rope and the countless other gear used in harvesting and carting the cedar logs to the railroad siding.
  3. fabrication
    the act of making a product from raw materials
    Think of all the persons and the numberless skills that went into their fabrication: the mining of ore, the making of steel and its refinement into saws, axes, motors; the growing of hemp and bringing it through all the stages to heavy and strong rope; the logging camps with their beds and mess halls, the cookery and the raising of all the foods.
  4. incidental
    following or accompanying as a consequence
    Can you imagine the individuals who make flat cars and rails and railroad engines and who construct and install the communication systems incidental thereto? These legions are among my antecedents.
  5. legion
    a vast multitude
    Can you imagine the individuals who make flat cars and rails and railroad engines and who construct and install the communication systems incidental thereto? These legions are among my antecedents.
  6. pallid
    lacking in intensity or brightness; dim or feeble
    People prefer that I look pretty, not a pallid white.
  7. ancestor
    someone from whom you are descended
    Don't overlook the ancestors present and distant who have a hand in transporting 60 carloads of slats across the nation.
  8. capital
    wealth in the form of money or property
    Once in the pencil factory—$4,000,000 in machinery and building, all capital accumulated by thrifty and saving parents of mine—each slat is given eight grooves by a complex machine, after which another machine lays leads in every other slat, applies glue, and places another slat atop—a lead sandwich, so to speak.
  9. thrifty
    careful and diligent in the use of resources
    Once in the pencil factory—$4,000,000 in machinery and building, all capital accumulated by thrifty and saving parents of mine—each slat is given eight grooves by a complex machine, after which another machine lays leads in every other slat, applies glue, and places another slat atop—a lead sandwich, so to speak.
  10. enumerate
    determine the number or amount of
    Why, even the processes by which the lacquer is made a beautiful yellow involve the skills of more persons than one can enumerate!
  11. resin
    a viscous substance obtained from plants or simple molecules
    Observe the labeling. That's a film formed by applying heat to carbon black mixed with resins.
  12. pumice
    a porous rock formed on the surface of some lavas
    The pumice comes from Italy; and the pigment that gives "the plug" its color is cadmium sulfide.
  13. pigment
    dry coloring material
    The pumice comes from Italy; and the pigment that gives "the plug" its color is cadmium sulfide.
Created on Tue Apr 14 20:27:28 EDT 2026 (updated Wed May 20 13:57:53 EDT 2026)

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