What does "pad" originally mean?
Native speaker’s answer
Rebecca
Great question! It's interesting to see how the electronic devices we know now as "pads" and "tablets" came to be called this way. This traces back to the ancient clay tablets and modern-day “pads” of paper (also known as notebooks) that were letter or tablet size and used for writing and note-taking purposes. Electronic tablets and pads also perform similar functions, so they have also come to adopt this name! Ex: Do you have a tablet I can use to jot down some notes? Ex: I am taking notes on a pad of paper.