CS Knowledge Base

• cursour (obsolete)

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

• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkɜːsə/, [ˈkʰɜːsə]

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈkɜɹsəɹ/, [ˈkʰɝsɚ]
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)sə(ɹ)

cursor (plural cursors)

1. A part of any of several scientific or measuring instruments that moves back and forth to indicate a position.
   • 1679, Roger Palmer, 1st Earl of Castlemaine; Joseph Moxon, The English globe being a stabil and immobil one, performing what the ordinary globes do, and much more, page 150:

     Besides, the Reader must know, if a Brazen graduated Semi-Circle were hung on the Poles here, with an erected moveable Pin, or Cursor on it, there would be no need of the Holes […] in each Parallel of the Globe, for the true Composing of it […]

2. (graphical user interface) A moving icon or other representation of the position of the pointing device.

   Synonym: pointer

3. (computing) An indicator, often a blinking line or bar, indicating where the next insertion or other edit will take place.

   Synonym: caret

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

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.
   • 1990 May 28, InfoWorld, volume 12, number 22:

     The only other problem is that there's a nagging tendency for the highlight to overrun when cursoring through file lists.

• electronic display
• GUI
• pointer

• Curros

From currō (“run”) + -sor.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkʊr.sɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkur.sor]

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

Third-declension noun.

• “cursor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "cursor", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, 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

Learned borrowing from Latin cursōrem.

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)

• “cursor”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “cursor”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from French curseur.

cursor n (plural cursoare)

1. cursor

Borrowed from Latin cursōrem.

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

cursor m (plural cursores)

1. (computing) cursor

   Synonym: puntero

• “cursor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025