Dear Geist,

What can you tell me about the word sharpie as a verb? It's in wide use. “I've been Sharpied!” is def a Thing. But I've had hints of an ancient verb sharpie, too. Is the Sharpie (the pen) a lot older than we thought? All intel appreciated. The best story I ever wrote is hanging in the balance.

—Dawn Morales, Montreal QC

Dear Dawn,

Sharpie the verb is a natural offshoot of the noun, as people find more and more things to, well, Sharpie—walls, tools, clothing, shoes, guitars, skin, hairlines and at least one driver's licence—and, perhaps, as the number of Sharpie colours expands. According to Wikipedia (in an entry flagged “needs additional citations”), Sharpie or sharp was also a word referring to Australian youth gangs in the 1970s; but only nouns appear in that definition.

In Merriam-Webster's online definition of sharpie, the Sharpie pen is nowhere to be found. The first definition is “a long narrow shallow-draft boat with flat or slightly V-shaped bottom and one or two masts each carrying a triangular sail.” The second offers (a) sharper (a cheat, especially in gambling), and (b) “an exceptionally keen or alert person.” The Oxford agrees. Sharper and sharpie were first recorded as being in use in 1859, as were the terms comeuppance, sack race and vamoose, among many others. Worldwidewords.org, one of our favourite nerdy word sites, says sharper is “a general term for someone living by his wits, especially through crooked games.”

Our verdict: the pen Sharpie and those other Sharpies are distantly related, each named for a different connotation of the word sharp.

—The Editors