stylus

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin stylus,^[2][3] a variant spelling of stilus (“stake; pointed writing instrument”),^[4][2][3] the source of style.^[5][6] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford call the spelling an error.^[7][6] It was influenced by Ancient Greek στῦλος (stûlos, “pillar”),^[4][8][9] from a mistaken belief that the word was Greek.^[5][10] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster take the botanical term as New Latin.^[3][9] Etymonline says that the Latin word is perhaps from the same source as stick,^[4] and that the Greek word is probably not directly related to it.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The stem-like part of a flower's pistil: 1729, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1727–8.^[2][9] Barnhart and Etymonline give 1728.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In English the word began as a term of botany, and the Roman writing instrument, the first sense of the Latin, is recorded only in 1807, in Landseer's lectures on engraving.^[2][4][3] The OED compares the whole range of its senses with style and with the uses of the Latin word.^[2] Technical uses followed from the writing point: the tracing point of a chart recorder or telegraph receiver by 1875,^[2][4] and in 1879 the needle of a phonograph,^[2][4] although Barnhart dates that sense to 1875.^[3] A hard point used to cut a record groove also came to be called a stylus.^[9][6] It was also used of the gnomon of a sundial, from 1796,^[2] and of a pointer or finger.^[2]

Timeline

• 1729 – in botany, the style of a flower.^[2][9] Barnhart and Etymonline give 1728.^[3][4]
• 1796 – the gnomon of a sundial.^[2]
• 1807 – a pointed instrument for writing.^[2][4][3]
• 1856 – in zoology, a small pointed process.^[2]
• 1875 – the tracing point of a recording instrument.^[2][4]
• 1879 – a needle following a groove in a record.^[2][4] Barnhart has 1875.^[3]
• 1884 – a pointer or finger.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pointed tool used in ancient times for writing on wax tablets, with a blunt end for erasing.^[11][9]
2. A pointed instrument for writing, drawing or engraving.^[11][9][2]
3. The tip that follows the groove of a gramophone record and passes on its vibrations; a needle.^[11][9][2]
4. A tool that cuts the groove when a record is made.^[9][6]
5. A tracing point in a chart recorder or telegraph receiver.^[2][6]
6. A hard-pointed tool for writing on stencils or carbon paper.^[9]
7. The gnomon of a sundial.^[9][2]
8. In botany, the style of a flower.^[9][2][6]
9. In zoology, a small pointed process, as on the external genitalia of an insect.^[9][2][6]

Word family

• stylar
• styloid

Related words

• style
• stylet
• stick

Usage notes

The plural is styli or styluses.^[11][9][6] Merriam-Webster also lists the less common spelling stilus.^[9]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins