the.com/terminal
Where computers admit they never needed a mouse to feel powerful.
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.
- name origin
- Named for old endpoints terminating telephone and telegraph lines
- black screen
- That blinking cursor predates the graphical interface by decades
- still everywhere
- Servers run the world via text-only commands daily
- double meaning
- Same word for airports, illnesses, and command lines
- the prompt
- The dollar sign waits, judging nothing, expecting everything
grand central terminal — nyc train station opened 1913, serves 750,000 commuters daily
king's cross station — london railway terminus opened 1852, connects east coast main line
central terminal group — three interconnected chicago train stations handling amtrak and metra