Where did the term ノートパソコン come from?


When I first heard ノートパソコン I was a bit confused and thought they were
referring to a PC brand or something.

Now that I think of it, it's a pretty appropriate term for a portable PC
(laptop).

Was just curious where the term came from?

On that note (pun intended); laptop is starting to sound like a weird name, I
don't think I have ever put a "laptop" on my lap... lol




The Japanese word for paper _notebook_ is not ノートブック but
[ノート](http://jisho.org/search/%E3%83%8E%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88) (Hence
[デスノート](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Note), by the way). ノートブック was
simply too long for Japanese people. Therefore, notebook PCs are naturally
called ノートPC, ノートパソコン or simply ノート in Japanese. From my understanding,
_laptop_ is no longer common today also in English and it has been almost
replaced by _notebook_.

We almost never use ノートブック to refer to paper notebooks, but when referring to
notebook PCs, ノートブック(PC/パソコン) is common as well as ノート(PC/パソコン).

**EDIT:** Hmm, seeing the comments here, it appears that _notebook_ (PC) is
not yet widely used among native English speakers, although [manufactures
stopped calling their products laptops long
ago](http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/laptop_notebook.asp).
Here in Japan, ノートPC has already replaced ラップトップPC almost completely, even
among ordinary people. Maybe that's because ノート is far easier for us to
understand :)

