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When I initially moved to the US over a decade ago, there was an initial point of vocab confusion for me with everyone referring to those as "laptops". While ev
by filoleg 4y ago
When I initially moved to the US over a decade ago, there was an initial point of vocab confusion for me with everyone referring to those as "laptops". While everyone in my old country was referring to them as "notebooks" (not just Apple, but as an entire class of devices regardless of the manufacturer). "Laptop" wasn't a word anyone used, so I just assumed it was another weird case of using an adjacent borrowed word from English, instead of the canonically correct (as I assumed) "laptop".
But now, turns out, Apple was calling them "notebook" and now switched to "laptop"z I feel like I am missing something important here. Under which context would one normally use laptop vs notebook? Is it regional? Or are there some device-specific nuances involved?
- tinus_hn 4y agoAs far as I remember manufacturers stopped using the word laptop when some people burned their legs or privates as they were using their laptops on their laps. So they started calling them notebooks and put in the small print you can’t use it on your lap.
- marssaxman 4y agoThis matches my recollection. I have been calling this foldable, portable category of computers "laptops" for approximately thirty years. The term "notebook" came along later, and always felt like a somewhat artificial marketing term; I never adopted it.