Physical objects used to mark one's place in a book, or digital markers that save the location of websites for easy return. Items that help maintain position in sequential content.
Compound of 'book' and 'mark,' first recorded in the 1850s. The digital sense emerged in the 1990s as web browsers adopted the metaphor of marking places in the vast 'book' of the internet.
The persistence of the bookmark metaphor in digital spaces shows how powerfully physical reading shaped our thinking - we still 'bookmark' websites as if the internet were a giant book we're reading page by page. Early bookmarks were often elaborate works of art, making them treasured possessions rather than mere functional tools!
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