cursor

English Online Dictionary. What means cursor‎? What does cursor mean?

English

Alternative forms

• cursour (obsolete)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kɜɹsəɹ/, [ˈkʰɜ˞sə˞]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɜːsə/, [ˈkʰɜːsə]
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)sə(ɹ)

Noun

cursor (plural cursors)

1. A part of any of several scientific or measuring instruments that moves back and forth to indicate a position.
2. (graphical user interface) A moving icon or other representation, usually called a pointer, of the position of the pointing device.
3. (computing) An indicator, often a blinking line or bar and sometimes called a caret, indicating where the next insertion or other edit will take place.
4. (databases) 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. (programming) A design pattern in object oriented methodology in which a collection is iterated uniformly.

   Synonym: iterator pattern

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

cursor (third-person singular simple present cursors, present participle cursoring, simple past and past participle cursored)

1. (intransitive, computing) To navigate by means of the cursor keys.

See also

• electronic display
• GUI
• pointer

Anagrams

• Curros

Latin

Etymology

From currō (“run”) +‎ -sor.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkur.sor/, [ˈkʊrs̠ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkur.sor/, [ˈkursor]

Noun

cursor m (genitive cursōris); third declension

1. a runner, racer
2. a courier, messenger, post
3. a slave, who ran before the chariot of a grandee, forerunner

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Related terms

Descendants

References

• “cursor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cursor in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• cursor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “cursor”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “cursor”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin cursōrem.

Pronunciation

Noun

cursor m (plural cursores)

1. cursor (part of scientific instruments that indicates a value or position)
2. (graphical user interface) cursor (icon representing the position of a pointing device)

Related terms

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French curseur.

Noun

cursor n (plural cursoare)

1. cursor

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cursōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kuɾˈsoɾ/ [kuɾˈsoɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: cur‧sor

Noun

cursor m (plural cursores)

1. (computing) cursor

   Synonym: puntero

Related terms

Further reading

• “cursor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28