# Archaic Analogies: Cut, Paste, and the Clipboard
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 30, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656 "2010-09-30T20:51:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/1 "2010-09-30T20:51:06Z")
In the old days, before CTRL-C, CTRL-V, I suppose people really cut words or pictures out with a pair of scissors to paste them onto another document. That’s what I heard, anyway.
But where does the “clipboard” come in in this analogy? Would people temporarily put their cutouts on a clipboard to let the glue dry, or…?
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### Author:  [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/2 "2010-09-30T21:13:39Z")
Well I’ve actually used literal cut and paste myself way back when (and you’re right about it), but it never involved a clipboard, so I can’t answer the latter part.
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/3 "2010-09-30T21:17:02Z")
I remember laying out a school newspaper “camera ready” with cutting and pasting. Everything had glue on the back, so instead of a clipboard we just used the wall as temporary storage.
However, in general - No. I think Cut, Paste, Clipboard are, like “desktop” and “trash basket”, metaphors for a concept that works in a specific manner and from the name, people understand the general idea of what it is supposed to do.
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/4 "2010-09-30T21:55:46Z")
> [@md2000](#):
>
> I remember laying out a school newspaper “camera ready” with cutting and pasting. Everything had glue on the back, so instead of a clipboard we just used the wall as temporary storage.
>
> However, in general - No. I think Cut, Paste, Clipboard are, like “desktop” and “trash basket”, metaphors for a concept that works in a specific manner and from the name, people understand the general idea of what it is supposed to do.
Yeah, but even then, the “desktop” is where I keep my most-used papers and shuffle them around in an order that makes to me. The trash can is where I put stuff I don’t want.
The clipboard, on the other hand, is what I use to write on when there isn’t a hard surface. What does it have to do with the transfer of content?
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/5 "2010-09-30T22:02:23Z")
> [@Reply](#):
>
> The clipboard, on the other hand, is what I use to write on when there isn’t a hard surface. What does it have to do with the transfer of content?
It doesn’t; they should have just called it a ‘pocket’.
Of course, it isn’t a pocket, either. It’s just a block of storage the software knows how to use in specific ways, but the marketers don’t think you’re smart enough to learn about stuff like that, so they invent bad metaphors and expect common usage to paper over the gaps. Thus we have clipboards being inexplicably used as a temporary storage location.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/6 "2010-09-30T22:12:28Z")
It’s not a “clipboard” - it’s a clip board.
It’s where you put waxed clippings (articles, graphics, and photos) for storage while you are “pasting up” the page.
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### Author:  [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/7 "2010-09-30T22:13:26Z")
My interpretation of it has always been that since clipboards have that handy clip, it’s a good place to stick a piece of paper or cut-out while readying the place you’re going to put it. Maybe that’s not what happened in practice, but that’s just how I made the analogy make sense in my mind.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/8 "2010-09-30T22:46:40Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> It’s not a “clipboard” - it’s a clip board.
> It’s where you put waxed clippings (articles, graphics, and photos) for storage while you are “pasting up” the page.
Never heard it called that, but that’s what was done with manual layout.
It doesn’t need a close analogy with real life though, everyone knows what it means.
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/9 "2010-09-30T22:53:25Z")
When the desktop metaphor was invented - desktop, filing cabinets, waste basket, etc - there were several other metaphors suggested that were equally useful; the “stovetop” metaphor, where open files were pots and stuff was stored in the cupboards or fridge; or how about the “toilet” metaphor, where you used the flusher instead of a waste basket?
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/10 "2010-09-30T22:54:00Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> > [@beowulff](#):
> >
> > It’s not a “clipboard” - it’s a clip board.
> > It’s where you put waxed clippings (articles, graphics, and photos) for storage while you are “pasting up” the page.
>
> Never heard it called that, but that’s what was done with manual layout.
>
> It doesn’t need a close analogy with real life though, everyone knows what it means.
Yes, that’s what I meant.
The term came from the old manual layout days. When people say “clipboard” it’s not referring to the thing that guys in white coats and glasses carry around, it the board where finished galleys are hung waiting to be pasted up.
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/11 "2010-09-30T22:55:52Z")
The clipboard / clip board was just a metaphor for somewhere that you kept one or more bits of document until you needed to put it onto another document.
_“Blessed are the cheesemakers?”
“It’s obviously not meant to be taken literally. It refers to any manufacturer of dairy products…”_
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/12 "2010-09-30T23:06:14Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> Yes, that’s what I meant.
> The term came from the old manual layout days. When people say “clipboard” it’s not referring to the thing that guys in white coats and glasses carry around, it the board where finished galleys are hung waiting to be pasted up.
I miss the old days. The smell of wax, the cuts from xacto knives, the illiterate typesetters…
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/13 "2010-09-30T23:13:43Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> It’s not a “clipboard” - it’s a clip board.
> It’s where you put waxed clippings (articles, graphics, and photos) for storage while you are “pasting up” the page.
Interesting theory, but then why do all the icons look like a clipboard (with the clip)?
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/14 "2010-09-30T23:22:16Z")
> [@Reply](#):
>
> > [@beowulff](#):
> >
> > It’s not a “clipboard” - it’s a clip board.
> > It’s where you put waxed clippings (articles, graphics, and photos) for storage while you are “pasting up” the page.
>
> Interesting theory, but then why do all the icons look like a clipboard (with the clip)?
Microsoft gets everything wrong.
Why do they call the photo that covers your desktop “wallpaper?”
The Mac had a clipboard in 1984 - it had no icon. It was just the temporary place where items that were cut or pasted where stored. I suspect that as computers evolved, and people got less and less familiar with why it was called a clipboard, the idea of using a “clipboard” as an icon caught on. Also, the real clip board is a hard thing to iconize.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/15 "2010-09-30T23:22:21Z")
rich people’s layout used hot wax, common folk cut double stick tape into small pieces. you needed tape for tiny bits of type from the Varitype machine. cardboard letters taped together also needed double stick tape.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/16 "2010-09-30T23:26:47Z")
First off, doesn’t _anyone_ but me use Control-Delete and Control-Insert?
Back to the topic. I was using Photoshop for a while before I realized why they called it masking tape. I mean, I understood why it was called masking on Photoshop, but then it dawned on me that you use masking tape to mask off certain areas IRL that you don’t want to paint.
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/17 "2010-09-30T23:45:33Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#):
>
> First off, doesn’t _anyone_ but me use Control-Delete and Control-Insert?
Sure, I use ctrl-delete all the time to delete the word to the right of my cursor. Why, is there some other archaic function attached to it? 😉
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/18 "2010-09-30T23:49:22Z")
> [@Reply](#):
>
> > [@Joey\_P](#):
> >
> > First off, doesn’t _anyone_ but me use Control-Delete and Control-Insert?
>
> Sure, I use ctrl-delete all the time to delete the word to the right of my cursor. Why, is there some other archaic function attached to it? 😉
Whoops, make that Shift-Delete and Shift-Insert.
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### Author:  [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2010, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/19 "2010-10-01T03:17:07Z")
Early electronic editors had different metaphors. I remember using a newspaper system about 1977 that gave users eight “bins” into which they could temporarily move a string of characters.
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/20 "2010-10-01T13:26:36Z")
It’s interesting how many of these terms we use that we don’t ever think about. I was just listening to a book set in Victorian England, where they used the word “keyboard” to refer to an actual board where the hotel hung its keys. Duh. I never even thought about that.
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