Context menu
A context menu (also called contextual,
shortcut, and popup or pop-up menu) is a
menu in a graphical user interface (GUI)
that appears upon user interaction, such as
a right-click mouse operation. A context
menu offers a limited set of choices that are
available in the current state, or context, of
the operating system or application to
which the menu belongs. Usually the
available choices are actions related to the
selected object. From a technical point of
view, such a context menu is a graphical
control element.
History
Context menus first appeared in the Smalltalk environment on the Xerox
Alto computer, where they were called pop-up
menus. The NEXTSTEP operating system further developed the idea,
incorporating a feature whereby the right or middle mouse button brought
the main menu (which was vertical and automatically changed depending on
context) to the location of the mouse, thereby eliminating the need to move
the mouse pointer all the way across the large (for the time) NextStep
screen.
Microsoft Office v3.0 introduced the context menu for copy and paste
functionality in 1990. Lotus 1-2-3/G for OS/2 v1.0 added additional formatting
options in 1991. Borland Quattro Pro for Windows v1.0 introduced the
Properties context menu option in 1992.
Source: Wikipedia (Context menu)