What is "text"

Text \Text\, v. t. To write in large characters, as in text hand. [Obs.]
--Beau. & Fl.

Text \Text\ (t[e^]kst), n. [F. texte, L. textus, texture, structure, context, fr. texere, textum, to weave, construct, compose; cf. Gr. te`ktwn carpenter, Skr. taksh to cut, carve, make. Cf. Context, Mantle, n., Pretext, Tissue, Toil a snare.]

1. A discourse or composition on which a note or commentary is written; the original words of an author, in distinction from a paraphrase, annotation, or commentary.
   --Chaucer.

2. (O. Eng. Law) The four Gospels, by way of distinction or eminence. [R.]

3. A verse or passage of Scripture, especially one chosen as the subject of a sermon, or in proof of a doctrine.

   How oft, when Paul has served us with a text, Has Epictetus, Plato, Tully, preached!
   --Cowper.

4. Hence, anything chosen as the subject of an argument, literary composition, or the like; topic; theme.

5. A style of writing in large characters; text-hand also, a kind of type used in printing; as, German text.

6. That part of a document (printed or electronic) comprising the words, especially the main body of expository words, in contrast to the illustrations, pictures, charts, tables, or other formatted material which contain graphic elements as a major component.

7. Any communication composed of words.

8. a textbook.

   Text blindness. (Physiol.) See Word blindness, under Word.

   Text letter, a large or capital letter. [Obs.]

   Text pen, a kind of metallic pen used in engrossing, or in writing text-hand.

late 14c., "wording of anything written," from Old French texte, Old North French tixte "text, book; Gospels" (12c.), from Medieval Latin textus "the Scriptures, text, treatise," in Late Latin "written account, content, characters used in a document," from Latin textus "style or texture of a work," literally "thing woven," from past participle stem of texere "to weave, to join, fit together, braid, interweave, construct, fabricate, build," from PIE root *teks- "to weave, to fabricate, to make; make wicker or wattle framework" (see texture (n.)).\n\nAn ancient metaphor: thought is a thread, and the raconteur is a spinner of yarns -- but the true storyteller, the poet, is a weaver. The scribes made this old and audible abstraction into a new and visible fact. After long practice, their work took on such an even, flexible texture that they called the written page a textus, which means cloth.

[Robert Bringhurst, "The Elements of Typographic Style"]

"to send a text message by mobile system," 2005; see text (n.).\nRelated: Texted; texting. Formerly it meant "to write in text letters" (1590s), text letters being a kind of large writing used by clerks in the text or body of a manuscript (distinguished from the smaller hand used in the notes).

n. 1 A writing#Noun consisting of multiple glyphs, characters, symbols or sentences. 2 A book, tome or other set of writings. 3 (context colloquial English) A brief written message transmitted between mobile phones; an SMS text message. 4 (context computing English) data which can be interpreted as human-readable text (''often contrasted with binary data''). 5 A verse or passage of Scripture, especially one chosen as the subject of a sermon, or in proof of a doctrine. 6 Hence, anything chosen as the subject of an argument, literary composition, etc.; topic; theme. 7 A style of writing in large characters; text-hand; also, a kind of type used in printing. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To send a text message to; i.e. to transmit text using the Short Message Service (SMS), or a similar service, between communications devices, particularly mobile phones. 2 (context transitive English) To send (a message) to someone by SMS. 3 (context intransitive English) To send and receive text messages. 4 To write in large characters, as in text hand.

1. n. the words of something written; "there were more than a thousand words of text"; "they handed out the printed text of the mayor's speech"; "he wants to reconstruct the original text" [syn: textual matter]

2. a passage from the Bible that is used as the subject of a sermon; "the preacher chose a text from Psalms to introduce his sermon"

3. a book prepared for use in schools or colleges; "his economics textbook is in its tenth edition"; "the professor wrote the text that he assigned students to buy" [syn: textbook, text edition, schoolbook, school text] [ant: trade book]

4. the main body of a written work (as distinct from illustrations or footnotes etc.); "pictures made the text easier to understand"

Text is a Google Chrome packaged app. It functions as a lightweight text editor that is not platform dependent. It is offline capable and supports most syntax highlighting.

TEXT is the band founded by Kristofer Steen, David Sandström, Fredrik Bäckström and Jon F Brännström. All, except Bäckström, were ex-members of hardcore band Refused. Stylistically, they have little in common with Refused. Their debut album, Text, is a mix of spoken word, music of various styles, and ambient sound effects, often producing an ethereal, avant-garde sound. Apart from the three "Tableau" tracks (which are one piece, split up across the album), each track could be described as fitting into a different genre. In 2008, a second album, Vital Signs, was released. Yet again the style of music is far from Refused and the first Text album. Only Fredrik Bäckström and Jon F Brännström appear on this album.

The record came out on Demonbox Recordings in Sweden and on Buddyhead in America and the rest of the world. Text – "Text" was Buddyhead #4 and considered a building block in what is now a very successfully diverse indie-boutique-label run by music journalist Travis Keller. Text announced a US tour the year after the record was released on Buddyhead but due to conflicts with International Noise Conspiracy tours, it was cancelled.

In literary theory, a text is any object that can be "read," whether this object is a work of literature, a street sign, an arrangement of buildings on a city block, or styles of clothing. It is a coherent set of signs that transmits some kind of informative message. This set of symbols is considered in terms of the informative message's content, rather than in terms of its physical form or the medium in which it is represented.

Within the field of literary criticism, "text" also refers to the original information content of a particular piece of writing; that is, the "text" of a work is that primal symbolic arrangement of letters as originally composed, apart from later alterations, deterioration, commentary, translations, paratext, etc. Therefore, when literary criticism is concerned with the determination of a "text," it is concerned with the distinguishing of the original information content from whatever has been added to or subtracted from that content as it appears in a given textual document (that is, a physical representation of text).

Since the history of writing predates the concept of the "text", most texts were not written with this concept in mind. Most written works fall within a narrow range of the types described by text theory. The concept of "text" becomes relevant if and when a "coherent written message is completed and needs to be referred to independently of the circumstances in which it was created."