cursor

A part of any of several scientific or measuring instruments that moves back and forth to indicate a position.

Noun

  1. A part of any of several scientific or measuring instruments that moves back and forth to indicate a position.
    • Besides, the Reader must know, if a Brazen graduated Semi-Circle were hung on the Poles here, with an erected moveable Pin, or Cursor on it, there would be no need of the Holes[…]in each Parallel of the Globe, for the...
  2. A moving icon or other representation, of the position of the pointing device.

    Synonyms: pointer

  3. An indicator, often a blinking line or bar, indicating where the next insertion or other edit will take place.

    Synonyms: caret

  4. A reference to a row of data in a table, which moves from row to row as data is retrieved by way of it.
  5. A design pattern in object oriented methodology in which a collection is iterated uniformly.

    Synonyms: iterator pattern

Origin

Borrowed from Latin cursor (“runner”), from currō (“run”) + -or (agentive suffix). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European.

Forms

cursors cursour

Related

courier current cursive cursory recursive

Derived

cursorjacking cursorless firehose cursor postcursor precursor

Verb

  1. To navigate by means of the cursor keys.
    • The only other problem is that there's a nagging tendency for the highlight to overrun when cursoring through file lists. - 1990 May 28, InfoWorld, volume 12, number 22:

Forms

cursors cursoring cursored cursour

Related

electronic display GUI pointer