Stylus - Etymology

Etymology

The word "stylus" (along with the word "style") comes from the Latin word stilus meaning: "a stake; a pointed instrument, used by the Romans, for writing upon wax tablets," which derives from the Greek word στύλος meaning "pillar" and "stile for writing on waxed tablets." A different suggestion is that the word does not derive from the Greek word "στῦλος", but that it has a common root with the Greek verb "στίζω" (meaning "mark"). According to the 1875 London Dictionary of Greek & Roman Antiquities a Stilus is "an object tapering like an architectural column; a metal instrument resembling a pencil in size and shape, used for writing or recording impressions upon waxed tablets. It signifies:

"An iron instrument (Ov. Met. IX.521; Martial, XIV.21), resembling a pencil in size and shape, used for writing upon waxed tablets (Plaut. Bacch. IV.4.63; Plin. H.N. XXXIV.14). At one end it was sharpened to a point for scratching the characters upon the wax (Quintil. i.1 §27), while the other end being flat and circular served to render the surface of the tablets smooth again, and so to obliterate what had been written. Thus, vertere stilum means to erase, and hence to correct, as in the well-known precept saepe stilum vertas (Hor. Sat. 1.10.72; Cic. Verr. II.41)."

There exists minor controversy about the correct pluralization of "stylus". The form "styli" or even "stylii" has become acceptable, even among major American manufacturers of styli and online dictionaries, based on the assertion that it is a direct loanword from Latin. However, "stylus" is in fact an English word based on the Latin word "stilus", and is more appropriately pluralized in English as "styli." Use of "stylii" is considered incorrect, as it would be based on the nonexistent Latin word "stylius".