- This term is made largely to fill a need. There was no accepted name for the action beforehand, and the term was thus coined by describing the physical description of the action. It has a cute or funny connotation due to its rhyming nature. The rhyming of the compound word was preserved by clipping the word ‘laptop’ to ‘lap.’
Lap tap
noun; clipping; compounding
The act of left clicking on a computer by tapping lightly on the touchpad instead of clicking the left-mouse key.
Etymology : This word is a clipped rhyming compound word made of ‘laptop’ + ‘tap.’ ‘Lap’ comes from clipping of the ‘laptop.’ ‘Laptop’ is a compound word that was formed as an analogy of ‘desktop.’ ‘Lap’ comes from O.E. ‘læppa’ meaning ‘skirt or flap of a garment.’ It was first used as ‘laptop’ meaning ‘a type of portable computer’ in 1984. ‘Tap’ comes from O.Fr. ‘taper,’ which means ‘strike lightly’ c1225.
Source : Conversation with a friend. “I disabled the lap tap because I kept accidentally clicking on things while moving the mouse pointer around” (8/29/2008)
Last modified: 3 December 2008