the.com/stylus
The original pointing device, predating the touchscreen by roughly five thousand years.
means A pointed instrument used for writing, drawing, or selecting things on a surface — from wax tablets to smartphone screens.
from From Latin 'stylus' (also spelled 'stilus'), the pointed tool Romans used to scratch words into wax tablets — one end sharp for writing, the flat end for smoothing out mistakes. The same root gives us 'style': a writer's 'stilus' came to mean the manner of their writing, and eventually the way anyone does anything. (The spelling 'stylus' was nudged toward Greek 'stylos,' meaning pillar, by later writers who assumed a Greek connection that wasn't really there.)
ancient originSumerians pressed cuneiform into clay with reed styli
name sourceLatin stilus, also root of the word style
comeback storyKilled by fingers, revived by artists wanting precision
palm pioneerPalmPilot's Graffiti made stylus handwriting mainstream in 1996
pressure awareModern tips sense thousands of force levels