12 Sep
2012
12 Sep
'12
11:01 p.m.
Laptop / notebook / whatever, and certain list
members' sarcasm
aside, a computer isn't a laptop (by the real-world definition) if it
only works when plugged in.
I think it's not that simple. Remove the battery pack and it ceases to
be a laptop? Not by the "what people actually say when not
logic-chopping on mailing lists" definition you seem to be (not
unreasonably, IMO) arguing for.
I don't think the "what people actually say" meaning of `laptop' is one
that can be captured by a simple objective easy-to-test line like "runs
on battery" or "integral screen that forms a lid". Like a lot of the
ways people actually use language, it's much fuzzier. Or, at least,
that's how it seems to me.
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