Etymologically
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notebook

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 22:03. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈnəʊtˌbʊk/[1]
  • US: /ˈnoʊtˌbʊk/[1]

Etymology

It is a compound of note and book.[2][3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small book in which notes or memoranda are written: the OED's first quotation is from Thomas Dorman (1565);[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word 1568, and Etymonline the 1570s.[6][3]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined the word as a book for setting down notes and memoranda, quoting Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, where Cassius's faults are "set in a note-book, learn'd, and conn'd by rote".[5] Merriam-Webster also lists the student's book of blank pages for taking notes in class.[6] Collins records a second sense, a book for registering promissory notes.[7] The newest sense, a small portable computer, is recorded from 1988;[2] it later meant especially a small, slim laptop.[2][6]

Timeline

  • 1565 – a book for writing notes in.[2]
  • 1568 – the word, as Merriam-Webster dates it.[6]
  • 1755 – in Johnson's Dictionary.[5]
  • 1988 – a small portable computer.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A small book with blank or lined pages for writing notes in: She kept a notebook by the bed to record her dreams.
  2. A small, light portable computer; a laptop.
  3. A book for recording promissory notes.

Word family

  • subnotebook

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins