nib

Etymology

From a variant of neb, perhaps due to association with nibble.

noun

1. The tip of a pen or tool that touches the surface, transferring ink to paper.
   Slowly welling from the point of her gold nib, pale blue ink dissolved the full stop; for there her pen stuck; her eyes fixed, and tears slowly filled them. 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room, Chapter 1
2. The bill or beak of a bird; the neb.
3. Bits of trapped dust or other foreign material that form imperfections in painted or varnished surfaces.
4. A piece of a roasted, hulled cocoa bean.
5. A small and pointed thing or part; a point; a prong.
   the little nib or fructifying principle 1658, Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus
6. One of the handles projecting from a scythe snath.
7. The shaft of a wagon.

verb

1. (transitive) To fit (a pen) with a nib.
   In nibbing the pen, place the inside of the point flat upon the nail of your left-hand thumb (holding the quill between the first and second finger of that hand), and let the whole length of the split be extended thereon, to steady the pen as much as possible […] 1820, James Henry Lewis, The best method of pen-making