Why do black people say "ink pen"?

Question

Doesn't the word pen imply ink? I mean it would be a marker or pencil if did not use ink would it not?

Answer 1

It's not just a black thing, it's a Southern thing (but most blacks started off in the South at some point and moved north, so they have a lot of Southern-isms in their vernacular.)

It's because many Southerners (I know this from experience) don't say "pen" and "pin" differently--they both sound like "pin". So, to differentiate between the two, a "pin" doesn't get a modifier, and a "pen" gets "ink" in front of it so that you don't hear "pin" and think, "a straight pin? A safety pin? A t-pin? What kind of pin?" It's a linguistic thing, man.

Answer 2

Here's your sign! Who cares if one calls it an ink pen or just a pen? Technically it is an ink pen. And I don't think this is a black/white/racial issue. You must have a blessed life if this is the best question you could come up with to ask.

Answer 3

I don't know where it started or why they say 'ink pen' but it really annoys me. They don't say "led pencil" so why say "ink pen"? It's just one of those illogical things they've passed down and has never been corrected.

Answer 4

It's not a black thing. It's a Southern thing. We say "ink pen" to differentiate between a pin (as in sewing) because we pronounce pen and pin the same.

Answer 5

Wayyyyy back when a 'pen' was anything you used to write with on a surface. And at one time an ink pen was a new thing, so you'd say 'ink pen' to seperate it from the other types of pens.

Answer 6

I'm black and no one I live with, hang out with or work with uses that term. Maybe it was just a chance incounter or perhaps that's the slang term that's used where you live. But not all black people say "Ink Pen."

Answer 7

I'm black and I know absolutely no one who says ink pen. I dont know where the heck you live, and maybe some black people there say it, but don't generalize and think that we all say that crap. By the way, why do white people say gee golly? Yea, I don't think u like it when someone generalizes about your race either.

Answer 8

We all know the Carolinas, where so many poor folk have ancestors and living relatives, are infamous now for hog farms, and growing up they often had to kill their favorite pet for dinner. The horror of a blood- soaked play/pig pen stuck with them from early childhood. If they learned to read or write, they had to use crayon or chalk till they could adjust emotionally to a penCIL or an INKpen. Not one of them has been able to praise these writing instruments,"O inkpen, how I love thee!" without shrieking out in mortal pain at the sound "Oink".
So have pity on these tortured souls raised on Charlotte's fatback, be they black, white, red, brown or yellow. They had a hard path to walk.

Answer 9

Talk about trying to start trouble over
something this trivial. if that's all we had to think
about in this troubled world,I would be happy .
Oh by the way I'm white and I say ATM machine,
pin number and ink pen, damn whats
this world coming to.

Answer 10

Why do a$sholes ask dumb questions, I'm sorry but to me that sounds like a very racial remark. And in case you didn't know all pens don't write with ink.