Copy and Paste Comes From Physical Layout Work
Paste is a thick soft mixture used to stick things. The computing term describes what editors physically did with scissors and glue.
Paste is a thick soft mixture, especially one used for sticking paper. *Cut, copy and paste* were not metaphors when the terms were coined: editors and typesetters really did cut text with scissors and paste it onto layout sheets, and the computing commands of the 1970s named the same operations. Larry Tesler, who developed them at Xerox PARC, chose words from a practice everyone still recognised. *Paste* is also a hard glass used for imitation gems.
- A sticking mixture. *Wallpaper paste.*
- A food spread. *Fish paste.*
- To insert copied text. *Copy and paste.*
- Imitation gemstone glass. *Paste jewellery.*
- Pasta — the same word. *Pasta.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | paste | Thick paste. |
| Verb | paste | Paste it in. |
| Past | pasted | Pasted text. |
| Compound | copy-paste | Copy-paste. |
| Doublet | pasta | Pasta. |
- Mix the wallpaper paste.Decorating.
- Copy it and paste it here.Computing.
- Paste jewellery imitates diamonds.Glass.
Where the computing terms came from
- Cut — physically cutting text from a printed sheet
- Paste — gluing it onto a layout board
- Copy — retyping or duplicating a passage
- Coined at Xerox PARC in the 1970s by Larry Tesler and colleagues
- Clipboard — named for the board that held the cut pieces
Old French *paste*, from Late Latin *pasta*, dough, from Greek *pasta*, barley porridge — the same word as *pasta*.
Why is it called copy and paste?
Because editors physically cut text with scissors and pasted it onto layout sheets. The computing terms named the same operations.
What is paste jewellery?
Ornaments made from a hard leaded glass cut to imitate gemstones, popular from the eighteenth century.