As a noun, a monitor is a screen that displays images from a computer, or a person or device that watches and checks something. As a verb, to monitor means to observe and track something over time.
From Latin “monitor,” meaning “warner, adviser,” from “monere,” “to warn or remind.” The sense shifted to someone or something that watches and reports for safety or control.
Your computer monitor and a heart monitor share an ancestor that meant ‘warner.’ Screens don’t just show things; in a deeper sense they’re our modern warning and information windows into hidden systems.
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