🚀 go-pugleaf

djbpitt+@pitt.edu (David J Birnbaum) writes:
: In article <1992Aug4.124530.21268@newssrv.edvz.univie.ac.at> 
: tom@bim.itc.univie.ac.at (Tom Kovar) writes:
: 
: >  Vice versa. Caran d'Ache was the first corporation, selling pencils in
: >Russia, thus the word was derived from the name of the corp. A Swiss one,
: >btw.
: 
: Russian karandash is reliably attested as both 'graphite' and 'pencil'
: from the second half of the seventeenth century (the dictionaries list
: one questionable citation from 1489, as well). Is this dating consistent
: with the history of the Swiss corporation in question?
: 

  Sorry, I was relying on the information I got from some of my Russian
teachers (some of the were even Russians) and also somewhere from the literatu-
re; unfortunately it was more than 10 years ago, so I do not remember any
details. As I've heard it independantly from more sources, I haven't approved
this information more exactly. 1489 is surely not consistent with Caran d'Ache,
the second half of the 17th century might already be.
  In the meantime, I got some sendings claiming that 'karandash' is of
"central asian origin", but nothing more. Are there any more informative
sources?
								Tom