[inforoots] Re: Laptop definitions

[John Carpenter]

Peter Capek wrote: "Has any looked in the Oxford English Dictionary for the earliest
citation?   It's usually quite good for this kind of thing.... "  

I happen to have an OED.  There are three pages of definitions of "Lap," many very interesting, and more verbs then nouns.  Earliest documented use was from the 14th Century.  No references to computers, and no "laptop" reference in any other context.  The OED was published in 1933, when the mainframe was not yet a glimmer in Tom Watson's eye.  Anyone ever try to pick up and carry a Holerith card sorter?  Perhaps that's one of the first uses of the modern term, "heavy metal." :-) 

There's a later OED version, updated by University of Waterloo (Ontario) in the 1980's, and it was published electronically.  Anyone have access to that version? 

I have this mental image of Ada Lovelace sitting on Charles Babbage's lap, but that's entirely off-topic!  :-)

John Carpenter
Reading, MA
carpenter114 at comcast.net
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