Why was Windows 3.0’s WinHelp called an online help system when it ran offline?

Some time ago, I described Windows 3.0's WinHelp as a program for browsing online help files." But Windows 3.0 predated the Internet, and these help files were available even if the computer was not connected to any other network. How can it be online"?

Raymond Chen at The Old New Thing

I doubt this will be a conceptual problem for many people reading OSNews, but I can definitely understand especially younger people finding this a curious way of looking at the word online". You'll see the concept of online help" in quite a few systems from the '90s (and possibly earlier), so if you're into retrocomputing you might've run into it as well.