The story
From the surname of its inventor, French painter and army officer Nicolas-Jacques Conté (1755–1805), who created it in 1795.
First known use, by meaning
- from mid 19th c. A drawing medium, usually square in cross-section, composed of compressed powdered charcoal or graphite mixed with a clay or wax base.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.