Etymology
The word "raster" has its origins in the Latin rastrum (a rake), which is derived from radere (to scrape). It originally referred to the raster scan of cathode ray tube (CRT) video monitors, which paints the image line by line by magnetically steering a focused electron beam. By association, it came also to refer to a rectangular grid of pixels. See also rastrum, a device for drawing musical staff lines.
Read more about this topic: Raster Graphics
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)