cursor

Etymology

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

noun

1. A part of any of several scientific or measuring instruments that moves back and forth to indicate a position.
   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[…] 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
2. (graphical user interface) A moving icon or other representation of the position of the pointing device.
3. (graphical user interface) An indicator, often a blinking line or bar, indicating where the next insertion or other edit will take place.
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.

verb

1. (intransitive, computing) To navigate by means of the cursor keys.
   The only other problem is that there's a nagging tendency for the highlight to overrun when cursoring through file lists. 28 May 1990, InfoWorld, volume 12, number 22