A lap is a surface (usually horizontal) created between the knee and hips of a biped when it is in a seated or lying down position. The lap of a parent or loved one is seen as a physically and psychologically comfortable place for a child to sit.[1][2]
In some countries where Christmas is celebrated, it has been a tradition for children to sit on the lap of a person dressed as Santa Claus to tell Santa what they want for Christmas, and have their picture taken.[3]
Among adults, a person sitting on the lap of another usually indicates an intimate or romantic relationship between the two; this is a factor in the erotic activity in strip clubs known as a lap dance, where one person straddles the lap of the other and gyrates their lower extremities in a provocative manner.[4]
A lap steel guitar is a type of steel guitar played in a sitting position with the instrument placed horizontally across the player's knees.[5] The lap can be a useful surface for carrying out tasks when a table is not available.[6] The laptop computer was so named because it was seen as being able to be used on the user's lap.[7]
See also
References
- ^ Sent Before My Time: A Child Psychotherapist's View of Life on a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, by Margaret Cohen, 2003, page 108.
- ^ Parenting Other People's Children: Understanding and Repairing Reactive Attachment Disorder, by John L. Stoller, 2006, page 214.
- ^ "A Visit from St. Nick". Squareamerica.com. Archived from the original on 24 December 2010. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
- ^ Colosi, Rebecca (2017). Dirty Dancing: An Ethnography of Lap Dancing. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1351569408. Archived from the original on 2017-11-13.
- ^ Volk, Andy (2003). Lap Steel Guitar. Anaheim, California: Centerstream. ISBN 978-1-57424-134-1.
- ^ The American Missionary - Volumes 22-24, 1868, page 57: "In the absence of chairs, the floor, (my present location) is not a very bad seat, and one can use their lap for a table if necessary."
- ^ The Electrified Mind: Development, Psychopathology, and Treatment in the Era of Cell Phones and the Internet, by Salman Akhtar, 2012, page 9.
External links
The dictionary definition of lap at Wiktionary
