Pointer

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈpɔɪn.tə/

Definitions

1. A device or indicator used to direct attention to a specific location, object, or piece of information
2. A mechanism or feature utilized to indicate or draw attention to a specific location, item, or piece of information
3. A tool or device designed to highlight or mark a particular location, object, or element of interest

Etymology: A pointer is, at heart, just a thing that points. The word combines "point" with the agent suffix "-er," the same ending found in "teacher" or "singer," so the earliest sense was simply something or someone doing the pointing. Over time the noun came to name the slender stick used to direct attention to a map, a diagram or a line on a blackboard, a usage that remains the everyday one. The word also carries a second, separate life. Its "-er" can instead mark a unit of measurement, which accounts for a sense that is less familiar today: a pointer was once used as a measure of length in its own right, in the sense of a gauge marking a fixed distance. Because the same ending does double duty, two quite different ideas ended up sharing one spelling.

Synonyms: indicator, sign, mark, signal, hand