Tuesday 13 March 2012

Etymology

The chat stylus forth with the chat "style" came from the Latin chat stilus meaning: "a stake; a acicular instrument, acclimated by the Romans, for autograph aloft wax tablets,"4 which derives from the Greek chat στύλος acceptation "pillar" and "stile for autograph on waxed tablets."5 A altered advancement is that the chat does not acquire from the Greek chat "στῦλος", but that it has a accepted basis with the Greek verb "στίζω" (meaning "mark"). According to the 1875 London Dictionary of Greek & Roman Antiquities a Stilus is "an article cone-shaped like an architectural column; a metal apparatus akin a pencil in admeasurement and shape, acclimated for autograph or recording impressions aloft waxed tablets. It signifies:

"An adamant apparatus (Ov. Met. IX.521; Martial, XIV.21), akin a pencil in admeasurement and shape, acclimated for autograph aloft waxed tablets (Plaut. Bacch. IV.4.63; Plin. H.N. XXXIV.14). At one end it was acicular to a point for abrading the characters aloft the wax (Quintil. i.1 §27), while the added end actuality collapsed and annular served to cede the apparent of the tablets bland again, and so to obliterate what had been written. Thus, vertere stilum agency to erase, and appropriately to correct, as in the acclaimed axiom saepe stilum vertas (Hor. Sat. 1.10.72; Cic. Verr. II.41)."

There exists accessory altercation about the actual pluralization of "stylus". The anatomy "styli" or alike "stylii" has become acceptable, alike amid above American manufacturers of styli and online dictionaries, based on the affirmation that it is a absolute loanword from Latin. However, "stylus" is in actuality an English chat based on the Latin chat "stilus", and is added appropriately pluralized in English as "styli." Use of "stylii" is advised incorrect, as it would be based on the absent Latin chat "stylius".citation needed

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