‖ stylus
(ˈstaɪləs)
Also stilus. Pl. styluses, styli.
[a. L. stylus, incorrect form of stilus: see style n.]
1. = style n. 1.
| 1807 J. Landseer Lect. Engraving iii. 119 Lines drawn with a stylus or steel point (commonly called an etching needle) on copper. 1821 Craig Lect. Drawing etc. ii. 101 The early Babylonians had a practice of tracing out various figures, with a stylus or point. 1834 Lytton Pompeii iii. i, A stilus and tablets of no ordinary size. 1881 A. Watt Mech. Industr. 126 The next operation [in etching] is to employ the stylus, or point. 1882 Chamb. Jrnl. 4 Feb. 81 The pencil outlines are then cut sharply on the friable surface with a stylus. 1884 J. Payn Some Lit. Recoll. (1885) 75 This delicate microscopic writing, looking as if it were done with a stylus. |
2. a. A tracing-point used to produce the written record in a chart recorder, telegraph receiver, or the like.
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2518/2 (Telephone), The other arm terminates in a stylus which normally rests upon an ink-ribbon over the bed of the receiving-table. 1879 G. B. Prescott Sp. Telephone 295 The membrane carries a stylus, which also participates in the motion, and records it upon the blackened paper. 1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XI. 382/1 By the use of a coated chart or an inked ribbon between the stylus and the chart, an intermittent record is made. 1971 Magrab & Blomquist Measurement Time-Varying Phenomena v. 182 A voltage will be applied to the coils of the writing system which will cause the slider and writing stylus to move in proportion to the voltage, thus obtaining a recording. |
b. = needle n. 3 e.
| 1879 Year-Bk. of Facts 88/2 In that patent he [sc. Edison] describes a means of recording ordinary telegraph signals by a chisel-shaped stylus indenting a sheet of paper. 1892 W. Gillett Phonograph 12 Instead of one stylus serving for the two purposes, there are now two; one, the recorder, having a very keen edge,..and the other, the reproducer, having a tiny knob highly polished. Ibid. 13 note, In some of Mr. Edison's recent instruments..two styluses are used. 1904 S. R. Bottone Talking Machines & Records 48 The recording stylus is now seldom made of steel, except only in the very commonest forms of recorders; but is usually made of..sapphire. 1943 Gramophone July 29/3 The stylus is a small sapphire carried on the toe of an L-shaped holder. 1960 Practical Wireless XXXVI. 370 (Advt.), Turnover sapphire styli. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio iv. 87 The hot-stylus method..helps to smooth the wall as the cutter moves on. 1975 Times 17 Sept. 16/3 Nowadays, you have a ‘cartridge’ with a ‘stylus’ in it, and the [gramophone] arm is called a ‘pick-up’. |
| fig. 1936 Dylan Thomas Coll. Poems (1952) 37 The grooved land rotating, that the stylus of lightning Dazzle this face of voices on the moon-turned table. |
3. The gnomon of a sun-dial; = style n. 7.
| 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. i. 18 A species of sun-dial, having a stilus or gnomon erected perpendicularly upon an horizontal plane. |
4. A pointer or finger; = style n. 6.
| 1884 Manch. Exam. 16 Sept. 6/2 A curious Kalender, with an astronomical volvelle of which the stylus had been preserved. |
5. Bot. = style n. 8.
Used as mod.L. in Ray Meth. Plant. Emend. (1703) 202.
| 1728 J. Douglass in Phil. Trans. XXXV. 570 They..fall to picking out the Filamenta Styli, or Chives, and together with them, a pretty long Portion of the Stylus itself, or String to which they are joined. 1771 Encycl. Brit. III. 457/1 Both have one stylus, and one long seed. 1856 Henslow Dict. Bot. Terms, Stylus. The style. Also the Ostiolum of certain Fungi. |
6. Zool. A style or stylet.
| 1856–8 W. Clark Van der Hoeven's Zool. I. 53 Trichodina.—Body oval, with vibratile cilia, without cirri or styli. 1887 Sollas in Encycl. Brit. XXII. 416/2 (Sponges) By the suppression of one of the rays of an oxea, an acuate spicule or stylus results. 1887 S. O. Ridley in Challenger Rep. XX. 84 Spicules.—Megasclera; long but very slender styli. |