What was the mouse called in the past? - briefly
The early pointing device was commonly referred to as a “ball mouse.” Over time the name was shortened to simply “mouse.”
What was the mouse called in the past? - in detail
In the 1960s Douglas Engel Engelbart’s laboratory referred to the new input device as an “X‑Y position indicator for a display system.” The term described its function rather than its appearance. By the early 1970s the prototype built by Bill English was labeled simply “mouse” in internal documents, but the commercial version released by Xerox PARC still carried the descriptor “hand‑controlled pointing device.” When Xerox marketed the product to the broader business community, promotional literature frequently used the phrase “computer pointing device” or “screen cursor controller.”
During the 1980s Apple’s first mouse appeared in catalogs under the name “Apple Mouse,” yet the technical specifications listed it as a “ball‑type pointing device.” The same period saw the term “ball mouse” become common in industry magazines to distinguish it from emerging “trackball” units, which were described as “roller‑ball controllers.”
With the advent of optical technology in the mid‑1990s, manufacturers introduced the label “optical mouse,” explicitly contrasting it with the older “mechanical ball mouse.” Technical manuals for the era distinguished between “mechanical (ball) pointing devices” and “optical pointing devices.”
Key historical designations:
- “X‑Y position indicator for a display system” – Engelbart lab, 1960s
- “Hand‑controlled pointing device” – Xerox PARC, early 1970s
- “Computer pointing device” – Xerox marketing literature, 1970s‑80s
- “Ball‑type pointing device” – Apple catalog, early 1980s
- “Ball mouse” – industry press, 1980s‑90s
- “Optical mouse” – manufacturers, mid‑1990s onward
Each name reflected the prevailing technology and the functional emphasis of the period, preceding the universal adoption of the simple term “mouse.”