stilus

• IPA^(key): /ˈstaɪ.ləs/
• Rhymes: -aɪləs

stilus (plural stili)

1. Alternative spelling of stylus.

• sluits

From Latin stilus. Doublet of staili and tyyli.

• IPA^(key): /ˈstilus/,
• Rhymes: -ilus
• Syllabification^(key): sti‧lus
• Hyphenation^(key): sti‧lus

stilus

1. stylus (sharp stick used in ancient times for writing in clay tablets)

Learned borrowing from Latin stilus, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp; to sting”).

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: sti‧lus

stilus (plural stilus-stilus)

1. stylus:
   1. (historical) an ancient writing implement consisting of a small rod with a pointed end for scratching letters on clay, wax-covered tablets or other surfaces, and a blunt end for obliterating them
   2. (computing) a small device resembling a pen used to input handwritten text or drawings directly into an electronic device with a touch-sensitive screen
2. (botany) style: The stalk that connects the stigma(s) to the ovary in a pistil of a flower

   Synonym: stil (Standard Malay)

• “stilus” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

• stylus (misspelling)

Probably from Proto-Italic *stiglos (which stimulus and stiva may also be related to), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp; to sting”) +‎ *-lós. In this case, related to instīgō (“to urge, stimulate, stir up”), Ancient Greek στῐ́ζω (stĭ́zō, “to mark with a pointed instrument”), Ancient Greek στῐ́γμᾰ (stĭ́gmă, “mark, spot”), Proto-Germanic *stikaną (“to stick, stab”). An alternative derivation relates the word to Avestan 𐬯𐬙𐬀𐬉𐬭𐬀 (staēra, “mountaintop”).

Not related to Ancient Greek στῦλος (stûlos, “pillar; wooden pole”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key):
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key):

stilus m (genitive stilī); second declension

1. (in general) a stake, pale, spike

   Synonyms: pālus, sudis, tālea, vallus

   • 380 CE – 392 CE, Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 23.4.5:

     ab hac medietate restium ligneus stilus exsurgens obliquus

     From the middle of these ropes a wooden arm rises obliquely

   1. (agriculture) a pointed instrument for freeing plants from worms or from shoots which grow too rankly
      • 4 CE – c. 70 CE, Columella, De Re Rustica 11.3.53:

         ; deinde eas confecto aequinoctio paululo infra terram secare et ligneo stilo laxatis vel rubi vel ferulae medullis stercus inmittere atque ita semina cucumeris inserere,

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   2. (botany) a stem, stalk
      • 4 CE – c. 70 CE, Columella, De Re Rustica 5.10.13:

        Omnis autem nux unam radicem mittit, et simplici stilo prorepit.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (in particular) a stylus or pencil used for writing on waxen tablets
   • c. 35 CE – 100 CE, Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 1.1.27:

     cum vero iam ductus sequi coeperit, non inutile erit eas tabellae quam optime insculpi, ut per illos velut sulcos ducatur stilus.

     As soon as the child has begun to know the shapes of the various letters, it will be no bad thing to have them cut as accurately as possible upon a board, so that the pen may be guided along the grooves.

   1. (transferred sense):
      1. an act of setting down in writing, composing, composition; the practice of composing; a manner of writing, mode of composition

         Synonyms: scriptiō, scriptūra

         • 61 CE – c. 112 CE, Pliny the Younger, Epistulae 7.27.9:

           Hic contra ut paulum exspectaret manu significat rursusque ceris et stilo incumbit.

           (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      2. a style in speaking, manner of speaking, mode of expression
         • 1826, Stanislas Julien, Meng Tseu vel Mencius‎, page 46:

           Ejus stylus, tunc historicus.

           Its style is historical.

      3. a decision, verdict, opinion

Second-declension noun.

• stilō (verb)

• “stilus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “stilus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "stilus", 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)
• stilus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “stilus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “stilus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin