# 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:** 2
### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2010, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/21 "2010-10-01T13:36:06Z")
> [@Smeghead](#):
>
> 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.
But that’s not the origin of the computer keyboard: it came from the keyboards of musical instruments, such as the piano or organ. That was extended to the typewriter, and to the computer.
---
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/22 "2010-10-01T14:06:01Z")
We’ll also be dailing cell phones for many many years into the future, even though just about zero\* percent of all cell phones ever built don’t/didn’t have a dial.
Somebody did build a dial cellphone as a novelty. I saw pix.
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### Author:  [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2010, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/23 "2010-10-01T14:11:24Z")
How about the Save icon being a 3.5" floppy disk?
There are other alternatives, but that one became ensconced into MS Office and will probably be in use forever.
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### Author:  [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/24 "2010-10-01T17:03:29Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> > [@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…
We used to use rubber cement.
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### Author:  [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/25 "2010-10-01T17:43:06Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> I miss the old days. The smell of wax, the cuts from xacto knives, the illiterate typesetters…
The monstrous Velox machines, the tiny pieces of rule that would stick to your shoes . . .
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2010, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/26 "2010-10-01T18:01:51Z")
> [@Smeghead](#):
>
> It’s interesting how many of these terms we use that we don’t ever think about.
Like cc. for carbon copy.
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/27 "2010-10-01T18:31:34Z")
In primary school in the US in the 1980’s I literally cut-and-pasted with scissors and glue to paste pictures on reports and whatnot. Do kids not do this anymore?
I’m curious about the floppy disk analogy for saving - I wonder how long that is going to stay around, now that it has been several years since the “death” of the floppy disk?
Think about phones. What do you call it when you enter a number onto the keypad? Did you say dialing? When was the last time you literally “dialed” a phone number on a rotary dial keypad?
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/28 "2010-10-01T18:42:07Z")
MS Word has a tool which allows you to cut-and-copy multiple items, then dump them all out in one paste. It’s called “the spike” after the old-fashioned [desktop paper spike](http://www.imagestate.com/Preview/PreviewPage.aspx?id=2473150&licenseType=RF&from=search&back=2473150&orntn=1).
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/29 "2010-10-01T18:48:07Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Somebody did build a dial cellphone as a novelty. I saw pix.
[There’s an app for that.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr2APizuXZg)
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/30 "2010-10-01T19:21:27Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> We’ll also be dailing cell phones for many many years into the future, even though just about zero\* percent of all cell phones ever built don’t/didn’t have a dial.
>
> Somebody did build a dial cellphone as a novelty. I saw pix.
We also get metaphor-remixes like “dialpad” – a pad of dials? What?
Or, like **beowulff** said, “desktop wallpaper”. Heh.
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2010, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/31 "2010-10-02T01:24:22Z")
Hell, what about “computer”? How often do \*you \*use the darned thing to add up a couple of numbers or whatever?
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2010, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/32 "2010-10-02T01:41:10Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#):
>
> Hell, what about “computer”? How often do \*you \*use the darned thing to add up a couple of numbers or whatever?
Originally, a ‘computer’ was a person who got paid to do arithmetic. This meant that back in the Old Days (up through the 1950s at least) computer names would often end in -AC (JOHNNIAC, ILLIAC, SILLIAC, etc.) for ‘Automatic Computer’. (Also, _individual_ computers were named; mass-production of computers would come a bit later, and along with it the ability to do things like use one piece of software on more than one piece of hardware.)
The original human computers not only had their jobs taken away, but their job title was used to name the machines that did it. I wonder how many of them got jobs as keypunch operators.
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### Author:  [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2010, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/33 "2010-10-02T05:39:01Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#):
>
> How about the Save icon being a 3.5" floppy disk?
> There are other alternatives, but that one became ensconced into MS Office and will probably be in use forever.
For what it’s worth, Ubuntu uses a hard drive for the save icon. Not that it isn’t similarly doomed to obsolescence, just not as quickly as 1.44MB floppies.
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2010, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/34 "2010-10-02T07:41:26Z")
Maybe we should just doctor the records to say that the appearance of 3.5" floppies was designed in homage to the “save” symbol.
(I can [del]bullshit up[/del] concoct a story for where the “save” glyph came from in the first place, but I’ll need a little time.)
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### Author:  [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2010, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/35 "2010-10-02T08:25:15Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> We’ll also be dailing cell phones for many many years into the future, even though just about zero\* percent of all cell phones ever built don’t/didn’t have a dial.
>
> Somebody did build a dial cellphone as a novelty. I saw pix.
Well, considering that it’s been a hundred years or so since gas lighting went the way of the dodo, and we still turn on and off the lights, I’d say it could take a while before the term “dial” gets updated.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2010, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/36 "2010-10-02T09:08:04Z")
nevermind
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2010, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/37 "2010-10-02T09:36:16Z")
I only twigged a few years ago, despite them being so blatantly obvious, are the origins of aero **nautical** terms:
Air **line**
Air **port**
Air **craft**
Flight **Captain**
Flight **Crew**
Flight **Steward**
**Cabin**
**Hold**
**Rudder**
**Cruising** altitude
**Cockpit** (“The term is most likely related to the sailing term for the coxswain’s station in a Royal Navy ship, and later the location of the ship’s rudder controls.” - Wikipedia)
And probably many many more I can’t think of at the moment.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2010, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/38 "2010-10-02T09:51:27Z")
> [@robert\_andrews](#):
>
> Think about phones. What do you call it when you enter a number onto the keypad? Did you say dialing? When was the last time you literally “dialed” a phone number on a rotary dial keypad?
What about the word “phone” itself? The “telephone” function is becoming less and less important, as more different functions are added.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2010, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/39 "2010-10-02T13:56:34Z")
> [@Ale](#):
>
> Well, considering that it’s been a hundred years or so since gas lighting went the way of the dodo, and we still turn on and off the lights,
early electrical switches for use in home illumination were rotary switches.
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### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2010, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaic-analogies-cut-paste-and-the-clipboard/555656/40 "2010-10-02T14:21:08Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> > [@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…
My ex-union-printer friend (now a jazz guitarist) used to say that the typesetters’ union gave everyone a spelling, reading and writing test, and…
…the top 20% flunked.
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