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Pen and Feather

are varieties of the same word, the root being the Sanskrit pat, to fly. (We have the Sanskrit pattra, a wing or instrument for flying; Latin, petna on penna, pen; Greek, pteron; Teutonic, phathra; Anglo-Saxon, fether; our “feather.”)

⁂ Analogous examples are Tear and Larme, Nag and Equus, Wig and Peruke, Heart and CŒur, etc.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Pelion
Pell-mell
Pellean Conqueror
Pelleas (Sir)
Pells
Pelops
Pelorus
Pelos [mud]
Pelt
Pen Name
Pen and Feather
Penang Lawyers
Penates
Pencil of Rays
Pendennis (Arthur)
Pendente Lite (Latin)
Pendragon
Penelope
Penelophon
Penelva
Penetralia