personal organizer
- noun
- /ˈpɜrsənl ˈɔrɡəˌnaɪzər/
- Specialized
- He had a busy clinic and kept track of appointments, procedures, and patient data in his new electronic personal organizer.
- phone and personal organizer
Examples
-
I won two hours with a personal organizer a couple of years ago.
Blog text (25) -
MARTY: We're not just looking for my personal organizer, Monty.
-
He had a busy clinic and kept track of appointments, procedures, and patient data in his new electronic personal organizer.
Fiction book (1997) -
For people with developmental disabilities, there are things like a medical timer or a personal organizer that can make a big difference.
-
Nowadays, the best place to find personal organizer software isn't necessarily on the desktop—it's on the Web.
Synonyms
A book for writing appointments, tasks, and schedules
A small handheld electronic device for keeping schedules and contacts
A small electronic device for keeping appointments, contacts, and notes
A small handheld electronic device for keeping contacts, schedules, and notes
A program that helps you record and organize contacts, calendars, and tasks
A small calendar you carry in your pocket to write events and notes
How Useful
- Archaic
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and transparently derived from 'personal' (relating to an individual) combined with 'organizer' (a device or system for managing appointments and contacts); together they clearly denote a device for managing a person's schedule and information. This adjective + noun compounding is compositional and common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Personal organizer comes from small paper books people used to carry. Those little books had pages for dates, phone numbers and notes, so the personal part meant 'for you' and the organizer part showed it helped put your life in order. When small electronic devices did the same job, they kept the name personal organizer.