The word "nock"

Here's a word I encounter all the time on pens: "nock".

I'm wondering if the word "nock" is a synonym for "ball point pen" or "biro" or has some application related to such pens. The reason is because almost all Japanese-made ball point pens have the word "nock" on them. Mitsubishi's trademarked name is "Laknock"; Sakura pens are trademarked as "Nocks Pure".

Anyway, perhaps this isn't an English word at all. If it turns out that no English speakers here can explain the word "nock", I might try posting in the Languages forum to see if any Japanese speakers might be able to explain.

That's weird, because the only times I have heard or read the word "nock" have been in the context of "nocking an arrow", that is, linking the back end of an arrow with a bow's string when one is about to fire said bow. I've never even h eard of such being at all used in the context of ballpoint pens myself.

There's a german science fiction novel called ''Ren Dhark'' started by Kurt Brand some decades ago, in which the Terranians (i.e. human beings) meet peacefully with extraterrestrial beings called Nocks. I'm not sure if it is spelled exactly like that. This encounter is one of the best peace of SF literature I ever read.

I've never seen "nock" on a pen. I have no idea what that would refer to, unless it's a foreign brand name I haven't heard of. It has nothing to do with pens in English. Like Travis said, it's only used in archery.

There are pens made the the brand name 'arrow', conincidentally enough.

As in the expression:

I have searched every nock and cranny.

Thank you lots, everyone!! I guess "nock" in the context I provided is nothing more than an overused trademark name in Japan, then...

Geoff_One, it's "every nook and cranny", not "every nock and cranny".

Definitions of nock
v. - Make small marks into the surface of
n. - A notch.
n. - The upper fore corner of a boom sail or of a trysail.
v. t. - To notch; to fit to the string, as an arrow; to string, as a bow.

I don't know about you, Geoff, but I learned that expression as "every NOOK and cranny." Different spelling and pronunciation.

Heehee & Uriel,

Acknowledged.

One could have written:

Heehee & Uriel,

The inputs you have provided have been analyzed and reduced.
The reduced data has been incorporated into the fine tuning process
which is carried out as a matter of course.

Using the definitions given by Adam, the first one "v. - Make small marks into the surface of" makes perfect sense when describing the performance of a pen.

>>I'm wondering if the word "nock" is a synonym for "ball point pen" or "biro" or has some application related to such pens.<<

The word "nock" cannot be a synonym for "ball-point pen". I cannot explain it so clearly, because I have no idea what it exactly means. Anyway, when the nib of your ball-point pen is retracted inside, you have to "nock" it, so that you can write.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't think that I've ever thought of the action of extending the tip of a pen as "nocking".

And according to the Google dictionary definition, "nock" is pretty specific:

nock (nŏk)
n.
The groove at either end of a bow for holding the bowstring.
The notch in the end of an arrow that fits on the bowstring.

tr.v., nocked, nock·ing, nocks.
To put a nock in (a bow or arrow).
To fit (an arrow) to a bowstring.

[Middle English nokke.]