QWERTY /kwer'tee/ adj.
[from the keycaps at the upper left] Pertaining to a standard
English-language typewriter keyboard (sometimes called the Sholes
keyboard after its inventor), as opposed to Dvorak or
non-US-ASCII layouts or a space-cadet keyboard or APL
keyboard.
Historical note: The QWERTY layout is a fine example of a
fossil. It is sometimes said that it
was designed to slow down the typist, but this is wrong; it was
designed to allow faster typing -- under a constraint
now long obsolete. In early typewriters, fast typing using nearby
type-bars jammed the mechanism. So Sholes fiddled the layout to
separate the letters of many common digraphs (he did a far from
perfect job, though; `th', `tr', `ed', and `er', for example,
each use two nearby keys). Also, putting the letters of
`typewriter' on one line allowed it to be typed with particular
speed and accuracy for demos. The
jamming problem was essentially solved soon afterward by a
suitable use of springs, but the keyboard layout lives on.
The QWERTY keyboard has also spawned some unhelpful economic
myths about how technical standards get and stay established; see
http://www.reasonmag.com/9606/Fe.QWERTY.html.