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先 looks like a teacher holding a pen, and 生 looks like a person sitting cross-legged with a pen, learning. maybe the symbols together mean someone who instructs someone else. Was this originally a Pictogram? just thought that was cool...

naruto
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Itsuki Ookami
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    [https://okjiten.jp/sp/kanji180.html](https://okjiten.jp/sp/kanji180.html) and [https://okjiten.jp/sp/kanji33.html](https://okjiten.jp/sp/kanji33.html) (look under 成り立ち) – sbkgs4686 Sep 09 '20 at 17:04
  • すごい、ありがとうございます。 – Itsuki Ookami Sep 09 '20 at 17:10

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Note that 先生 does not strictly mean "teacher". 先生 is used as a title toward many types of superiours/leaders with some kind of expertise: teachers, doctors, lawyers, politicians, even the pastor at my Christian church. See this link for more information about applicability.

先 - Means "previous" or "before"
生 - Means "live" or "born"

It basically means someone who has lived through a certain skill/experience more than you.

So no, as @sbkgs4686 linked in their comment, the etymology of the characters has nothing to do with pens, and only that of 先 is even related to a person.

istrasci
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  • ooooh! that is so cool dude! It's like this: 先 - Means "previous" or "before" 生 - Means "live" or "born". So it means like "The one who comes before the one that is more recently born"? right? wow. I saw the "pens" and thought of school, y'know. this is cool. And I know I just said what you just said, but this is so awesome!!! If you can't tell, I'm irrationally excited about this. lol – Itsuki Ookami Sep 10 '20 at 16:02
  • @ItsukiOokami: _"So it means like "The one who comes before the one that is more recently born"?"_ -- No, not quite; I think maybe you got confused. It's literally "before, earlier, ahead of time + born", as in "someone who was born before you were" == "someone older than you" == "an elder". – Eiríkr Útlendi Oct 22 '20 at 18:38