Other forms: quills
A quill is a stiff feather, once cut and used for writing. A goose quill, sharpen the quill, quill and ink.
The hollow shaft holds ink and the cut nib splits to release it, and it had to be recut constantly — which is what a penknife was for. Flight feathers from a goose's left wing curve conveniently for a right-handed writer. A porcupine's spines are also quills.
1nounquillA stiff feather cut for writing.
“In the museum, we saw the quill that the poet used to write his letters.”
quill is a feather, or a pen.
Middle English quyl means a reed or the shaft of a feather, probably from Middle Low German quiele.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʷelH- — to pierce, stick
Middle Low German
quiele
Middle English
quyl
English, today
quill
From late Middle English quyl, which is first attested in the early 15th century with the meanings "fragment of reed" and "shaft of a feather", probably from Low German - and Middle Low German quiele, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European gʷelH- (“to pierce, stick”). Compare Middle High German kil (“large feather, quill”), which is derived from the Low German term.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA