Is 'board pen' a British word?

[tulipflower]

Do Americans use the word 'board pen' for the tool they use to write on the whiteboard?
Is there any difference between a 'board pen' and a 'marker'?

 

[emsr2d2]

I've never heard of "board pen". It's a "whiteboard marker" or "whiteboard marker pen" for me.

 

[tulipflower]

I've never heard of "board pen". It's a "whiteboard marker" or "whiteboard marker pen" for me.

I've found it in a book (Oxford Word Skills, elementary level).

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm not saying it doesn't exist. I'm just saying I've never heard it.

 

[tedmc]

"Board" could mean any board. Why not be more specific and say "whiteboard"? And it is not really a pen either.

 

[Tarheel]

I've never heard of a board pen before either. I would call it a marker.

 

[jutfrank]

We use, and always have used 'board pens' at my school. I'm quite sure the same is the case at other UK schools.

 

[Rover_KE]

'Whiteboard pens' is common.

 

[Skrej]

'Dry erase markers' is the more common term in AmE, or possibly 'whiteboard markers'.

 

[probus]

During my workkng days I used whiteboards a lot, but we just called the writing tools erasable markers. I've never heard board pen.

 

[Tdol]

I have heard board pen as well as marker. I think pen may be an older term.

 

[Tdol]

Ngrams shows an interesting pattern, with pen in decline.

 

[jutfrank]

Ngrams shows an interesting pattern, with pen in decline.

Remember that the data there is only for books. It doesn't give a very reliable indication of what the people who use board pens actually refer to them as day in day out. I don't know about other professions, but I'd say that BrE-speaking EFL teachers overwhelmingly use board pens, and it isn't in decline at all.

'Dry erase markers' is the more common term in AmE

That sounds like the kind of thing that would be written on the box—the industry term, not the familiar term. I doubt anyone familiar with them would refer to them like that.

 

[Skrej]

That sounds like the kind of thing that would be written on the box—the industry term, not the familiar term. I doubt anyone familiar with them would refer to them like that.

Sorry, Doubting Thomas. It's an extremely common and widely used term in AmE. It's what I and all my colleagues refer to them as.

 

[probus]

Remember that the data there is only for books.
(...ellipsis inserted by probus...)
That sounds like the kind of thing that would be written on the box—the industry term, not the familiar term. I doubt anyone familiar with them would refer to them like that.

As I almost but not quite stated above, that is what we called them: erasable markers.