www.alphadictionary.com

This afternoon I attended a (most delightful) concert with a program comprising compositions from the early 1600s in the "stylus fantasticus". Clearly in this context it means "(fantastical) style", but it is also the term for a slender pointed object used for a number of functions:
1) incising a line or channel in a surface, for example, manually preparing a mimeograph stencil;
2) pointing to locations on a touch screen, for someone whose fingers are too fat to do this accurately;
3) transferring vibrations to or from a surface for the purpose of analog recording or playback; in the "from" case, a phonograph needle.
(There may be more.)

In all these uses, there is no ink or other substance transferred between the stylus and the surface; only contact is involved.

It turns out this may be covered sufficiently in the treatment of Stylite, the term for a post sitting monk, which I often confuse with stoicism.