stylus

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a pen-shaped device used to write, draw, or select items on a touchscreen or graphics tablet

   She used a pressure-sensitive stylus to sketch directly on the tablet.

2. 2
   noun

   the needle that follows a record's groove and transmits its vibrations to a record player

   Dust on the stylus made the record skip.

3. 3
   noun

   a pointed instrument for writing, marking, or incising, especially the rod used in antiquity on wax or clay tablets

   The scribe scratched the account into a wax tablet with a bronze stylus.

Borrowed from Latin stylus, also stilus ("stake; pointed writing instrument"). The y-spelling was influenced by Greek stylos ("pillar"), probably an unrelated word. Stylus is a doublet of style: the tool's name broadened to the manner of writing, while stylus later extended to record-player needles and digital pens.

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