keymote.html - See: LOW KEY, OFF-KEY.

keymote.html - {adj.}, {informal} Excited; nervous; anxious to do something. * /Mary was all keyed up about the exam./ * /Mother would not let Tom read a ghost story at bedtime; she said it would get him keyed up./

keymote.html - noun
(Music) (Science and Technology) An electronic musical instrument with keys arranged as on a piano, and usually a number of pre-programmed or programmable electronic effects such as drum rhythms, different 'voices', etc.; known more fully as an electronic keyboard. Etymology: Formed by dropping the word electronic from the more formal name electronic keyboard. The word keyboard originally meant 'the row of keys on musical instruments such as the organ and piano'; the modern keyboard looks like a section of piano keyboard in a flat plastic casing. History and Usage: Although electronic keyboard instruments of one kind and another have been in existence since the early years of this century, the type now known as an electronic keyboard or simply a keyboard did not become available until the late seventies. Much more compact than the earlier electronic organ, the keyboard (which is really little larger than the depth and width of the set of keys) relies on microchip technology to produce a wide range of sounds and effects. Keyboards became popular and versatile instruments for pop and rock music during the eighties, especially with the development of MIDI, allowing several to be linked together . They were also heavily marketed as ideal instruments for home entertainment. A player of a keyboard is known as a keyboardist. Combine this with a virtuoso stick player and MIDI keyboards and you get organs, guitars, synthesizers, and lots of other different sounds. Dirty Linen Spring 1989, p.
15 Let's play keyboard video and the complete keyboard player book. Takes you through the initial learning exercises to the complete keyboard player. Family Album Home Shopping Catalogue Spring and Summer 1990, p. 959

keymote.html - noun
(Science and Technology) A person who enters text at a keyboard, especially in typesetting or data capture. Etymology: Formed by adding the agent suffix -er to the verb keyboard, which was adopted in computer technology from well-established use in typesetting terminology. History and Usage: A word which has been used in the printing industry for some decades, but which has acquired a much wider currency with the spread of computer technology during the eighties. The word is now sometimes applied to anyone who works at a keyboard, whether or not this is part of a programme of data capture, and might eventually take over from typist as the typewriter gives way to the computer keyboard. Much of this work is performed by keyboarders who don't understand English. Fortune 4 Feb. 1985, p.
51 The standard of accuracy achieved by the keyboarders is outstanding. Review of English Studies Feb. 1990, p. 77

keymote.html - noun
(Health and Fitness) (Science and Technology ) Colloquially, minimally invasive surgery, carried out through a very small incision, using fibre-optic tubes for investigation and as a means of passing tiny instruments into the tissue. Etymology: Formed by compounding: surgery done through a hole which is so small that it is likened to a keyhole. History and Usage: Keyhole surgery, a technique that is dependent upon advances in fibre optics in the seventies and eighties, has been practised for about a decade , but the colloquial nickname belongs to the second half of the eighties, when it became possible to carry out what would otherwise have been major operations using the technique. Never an admirer of 'keyhole' surgery, I decided on liberal exposure of the problem. Sunday Mail (Brisbane)
1 May 1988, p.
28 The first operation in Britain to remove a kidney...by minimal invasive surgery, or 'keyhole' surgery in popular jargon, was carried out in Portsmouth. The Times 17 May 1990, p. 20

keymote.html - noun
Also written key pad ( Science and Technology) A small panel (either hand-held or attached to a larger keyboard) with an array of push-buttons which can be used to control an electronic machine such as a television, video recorder, calculator, or telephone. Etymology: Formed by compounding: keys arranged on a plastic pad (smaller than the board of keyboard). History and Usage: The word was introduced in the mid seventies in connection with teletext systems, and was soon also being used for TV remote-control monitors and the push-button controls which replaced dials on telephones. Many computer keyboards have a separate numeric keypad which can be used as a calculator, and may also have separate groupings of keys which act as keypads for selecting functions, moving the cursor , etc. Pressing the mute button on the keypad temporarily cuts off your caller. Sunday Times Magazine 28 Oct. 1984, p.
118 This new terminal has...a numeric keypad, a function keypad and a tamper-resistant pinpad. Computer Bulletin June 1986, p. 3