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By Candice at 07:24:17 on Jul 9, 2007 in Canada

So, Americans don’t know what pencil crayons are? This blows my mind. So, what the fuck do they call them? I’d ask Sean, but he’s sleeping. Bah. I can’t believe I haven’t talked about pencil crayons since moving here. Apparently, I would have received the same blank stare I’ve gotten by mentioning duotangs or elastics.

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  • Serlady
    this is great. i am from Illinois and have never heard the term "map pencils" until today. i saw it on a school list for my nephew and was stumped. how should i know they really meant me to get him Colored Pencils! :D i think it is a great term. they are pencils, and they are colored. pencil crayons is also a good name for them i think.

    also this thing you're calling a "duotang", that is known as a folder. the metal pieces that you describe putting thru the paper and folding down, that would be a "brad". so it would be a folder with brads.

    as to pronunciation. a lot of my friends will still use the child pronunciation "crowns" for crayons. they are affectionately termed "crayola crowns".

    i enjoy superfulous u's, but using them in the states usually gets one termed "uppity" or "snobbish" or downright "obnoxious". as do words like "queue" for "line" or "bin" for "wastebasket". i always wanted to speak proper english, alas, i was taught proper american. ;)
  • Well, I'm sticking with pencil crayons. And I'm not going to pronounce crayons "craans", either. I've still never given in to spelling words without "superfluous u's" (as Sean calls them). Theatre is still theatre, cheque is still cheque, (Google spell check, you can underline those all you want!), and the last letter of the alphabet is Zed. Does anybody have an elastic?

    Humbug! I'm just cranky because I need a Grand & Toy. As in, right NOW. I am being denied a convenient source of bristol board and mailing supplies. Especially the mailing supplies, since I have a whole lot of things I need to mail. As in, right NOW.
  • Grew up in the States, and yes, it's colored pencils. I just had to make an effort to not spell it "coloured".
  • driftr
    I concur, colored pencils it is.
  • Yeah, I have an American friend who insists "pencil crayons" are called "coloured pencils," or better yet, "colored pencils." CRAZY!
  • Duotangs are a a specific subset of folders, though. We also used two-pocket folders quite a bit. Scribblers are those wide-ruled notebooks that little kids write their journals in in kindergarten. Sometimes half of the page is unlined, so you can draw a picture.
  • Duotangs? = Folders

    Scribblers? = Coloring Books (I guess)

    You know, "Map Pencils" may be regionalized to Texas, I notice the supply list I found was for a Texas school. My dad is a geophysicist, and before the days of color ploting they did actually color in sections of the maps with map pencils.
  • Map pencils? So, you're only allowed to colour in maps with them? Or what? That's insane. This is a proper school supply list: http://www.fvsd.ab.ca/flomac/supplies.htm

    Note that it also lists scribblers. Haha. In the earlier grades, you get to illustrate your scribblers with pencil crayons!

    Duotangs are... well... I don't know if there's another term, because I've never had to use it. Wikipedia says "paper folders made of harder cardstock paper with flat metal teeth that people use to bind multiple sheets of paper simply by bending the metal teeth through the holes of the paper and folding them down to keep them in place". What would you call that?
  • zap!
    Tritangs? Binders? Lol
  • zap!
    Lol, map pencils? Coloured pencils! What is a duotangs, I'm presuming elastics are rubberbands?
  • The most common term I hear used is "Map Pencils"
  • I believe they're generally referred to as "colored pencils" in the states.
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