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definitions

cursor

[kur-ser]
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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR cursor ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

Digital Technology. a movable, sometimes blinking, symbol that indicates the position on a display screen where the next character entered from the keyboard will appear, or where user action is needed.
a sliding object, as the lined glass on a slide rule, that can be set at any point on a scale.

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Origin of cursor

1250–1300; Middle English: “runner, courier”; ( 1590–1600 in sense “sliding object” < Latin), equivalent to cur(rere) “to run” + -sor, for -tor -tor; cf. course
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for cursor

Contemporary Examples of cursor

Historical Examples of cursor

  • Hover the cursor over the marked text, and an explanation should appear.

  • Hover the cursor over the word and the original text will appear.

    Abigail Adams and Her Times

    Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

  • Scroll the cursor over the word and the original text will appear.

    Cressy and Poictiers

    John G. (John George) Edgar

  • Hover the cursor over the word and the nature of the correction should appear.

    Witch Stories

    E. Lynn (Elizabeth Lynn) Linton

  • Hover the cursor over the text, and the nature of the correction should appear.

    Life of Robert Burns

    Thomas Carlyle

British Dictionary definitions for cursor

cursor

noun

the sliding part of a measuring instrument, esp a transparent sliding square on a slide rule
any of various means, typically a flashing bar or underline, of identifying a particular position on a computer screen, such as the insertion point for text
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for cursor
n.

computer sense is 1967 extension of name for the sliding part of a slide rule or other instrument (1590s), earlier "a running messenger" (c.1300), from Latin cursor "runner," also "errand-boy," from curs-, past participle stem of currere "to run" (see current (adj.)).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper