Desktop
nounA personal computer designed to stay in one place on a desk, rather than a portable laptop.
How to spell desktop
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce desktop
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does desktop mean?
- nounA personal computer designed to stay in one place on a desk, rather than a portable laptop.
- nounThe main on-screen working area of a computer, where icons and shortcuts appear.
Desktop in a sentence
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The office issued him a powerful desktop for editing video.
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He saved the report to his desktop so he could find it quickly.
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She replaced her ageing desktop with a slim new model.
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Cluttered icons covered every corner of her desktop.
Where does desktop come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a transparent English compound, formed simply by joining 'desk' and 'top'. The first element, 'desk', came into Middle English in the 1300s from the Medieval Latin 'desca', a table or counter, which itself traces back to the Latin 'discus', meaning a disc or flat dish; the same Latin root also gave English the words 'disc', 'dish', and 'dais'. The second element, 'top', is a native Old English word, 'topp', meaning the highest point or summit. Together 'desktop' first described the literal flat upper surface of a desk. With the rise of personal computing in the late twentieth century it was reused, first for a machine that sits on a desk rather than a lap, and then for the on-screen working area that imitates a real desk, which is why the spelling stays an utterly regular two-part compound with no hidden traps.
How the word is built
- desk (a table for working)
- top (the upper surface)
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