means A terminal is an endpoint—a device or program for typing commands into a computer, the far end of a transport line, or, as an adjective, something marking a final limit or fatal conclusion.

from From Latin 'terminus,' a boundary or end—the same word Romans gave to Terminus, the god of boundary stones, who marked where one field stopped and another began. It reached English through 'terminalis,' meaning 'of or at the end.' The computing sense arrived in the 20th century: a 'terminal' was literally the endpoint of a connection to a mainframe, the place where the human met the machine. The grim medical sense ('terminal illness') and the travel sense (bus and airport terminals) all share that same root idea—the place where the line runs out.