intercom

Etymology

It is from English a colloquial clipping of intercommunication,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} originally of the phrase intercommunication system.^[7][8] Barnhart dates the phrase to 1911,^[7] and Etymonline records intercommunication of systems of linked telephones from 1881.^[3] The longer word is from Medieval Latin intercommūnicātio, an Anglo-Latin word recorded in 1406,^[2] formed from inter- and communication.^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A system for talking by radio or telephone within or between aircraft, offices or vehicles: 1940, in C. Olsson's contribution to Michie and Graebner's Their Finest Hour.^[2][7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also gives 1940,^[8] Etymonline 1937,^[3] and Dictionary.com 1935–40.^[9] The Oxford Dictionary of English places it in the Second World War.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a colloquial abbreviation,^[2][4] used of the internal communication systems of aircraft, offices and vehicles,^[2][7] and soon also attributively.^[2] The Shorter Oxford extends it to systems linking the units of any organization, such as security patrols.^[4]

Timeline

• 1940 – a radio or telephone system for communication within or between aircraft, offices or vehicles.^[2][7][8] Etymonline dates the word to 1937.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An internal telephone or radio system for talking between the rooms of a building or the parts of an aircraft, ship or vehicle: The pilot announced the delay over the intercom.^[6][8][2][4]

Related words

• intercommunication
• communication
• intercommunicate

Usage notes

Collins labels the word informal,^[6] and the Shorter Oxford colloquial.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press