Scratchpad

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small writing surface used for jotting down notes or ideas temporarily
2. An informal note-taking tool, often utilized for quick sketches or reminders during brainstorming sessions
3. A reusable digital or physical pad where users can make quick calculations, doodles, or thoughts without formality

Etymology: The word is a plain compound: "scratch" paired with "pad", the latter a common English noun for a stack of sheets bound at one edge. "Scratch" in this sense refers to making quick marks or jottings, so a scratch pad is a pad for rough, hurried notes rather than finished writing. The pairing follows the same pattern as many everyday English compounds, where a noun describing an action is set in front of a noun describing an object. The sense of "scratch" that matters here is the older meaning of marking a surface lightly, which later extended to making a rough or preliminary record. A notepad used for that purpose became a scratch pad, and the rough-draft sense of "scratch" in phrases like "scratch work" follows the same logic. Nothing in the history suggests a dramatic shift, so the word's meaning is simply the sum of its two parts.

Synonyms: notepad, memo pad, writing pad