Do you know why the laptop computer is called a laptop? Can you guess?
Give up?!? Well, when we are seated our legs form what is called the lap*. We put things on top of it when seated like a dinner tray, a child, a girlfriend, a cat, a puppy, a book...or a mobile computer.
So, we put these two words together to form a new word: laptop. This new term coined in the early 1980s differentiated the mobile computer from the larger and stationary desktop computer (which usually is set on top of a desk). The laptop computer is light enough to be placed on the top of one's lap. Thus, was born the term laptop.
Photo: Personal Archives
Notebook computers came later and were a bit lighter and smaller, like a note pad or notebook children use in school. Nowadays, the term laptop pretty well dominates as the term for all mobile computers.
You are on your way to speaking impressive American English!
*TheFreeDictionary by Farlex defines lap: a. The front area from the waist to the knees of a seated person.
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