mobile

Pronunciation

• IPA: adjective UK /ˈməʊ.baɪl/, US /ˈmoʊ.bəl/; noun UK /ˈməʊ.baɪl/, US /ˈmoʊ.biːl/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French mobile,^[2][3][4] from Latin mōbilis (“movable, easy to move; changeable, fickle”),^[2][3] a contraction of *movibilis, from movēre (“to move”),^[2][3][4] the source of move,^[5] from Proto-Indo-European *meue- (“to push away”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Capable of movement, not fixed: 1490, in Caxton's translation of the Eneydos.^[3][2] The noun, the outermost sphere of the universe, the primum mobile, is from probably before 1430, in Lydgate.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century mobile, short for Latin mobile vulgus, “the fickle crowd”, meant the common people, the rabble (1600), and was shortened to mob.^[6][2][5] The sense “easily moved” is from the 19th century.^[7] The sociological sense, able to move between social levels, is from the early 20th century, by 1927, as in upwardly mobile.^[2][5] The art form, a sculpture of balanced hanging parts that move in the air, is associated with Alexander Calder, from 1936 for mobile sculpture and 1939 for mobile.^[2][6] Mobile home is from 1936.^[2] The mobile phone is first recorded in the US in 1945 in Word Origins, but only became widely available in the 1980s;^[5] Etymonline dates the term to 1983.^[2] In Britain a mobile is now usually such a phone, where Americans say cellphone.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1430 – noun, the primum mobile.^[3]
• 1490 – capable of movement.^[3]
• 1600 – noun, the rabble.^[6]
• 1927 – socially mobile.^[2]
• 1936 – mobile home and mobile sculpture.^[2]
• 1945 – mobile phone.^[5]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Able to move or be moved easily from place to place.
2. Able to change quickly in mood or expression; fluid.
3. Able to move between social classes or jobs: upwardly mobile.
4. Travelling or operating from a vehicle: a mobile library.

Noun

1. A sculpture of balanced parts hung so as to move in the air.
2. (chiefly British) A mobile phone.

Word family

• mobility
• airmobile
• semimobile
• nonmobile
• mob
• mobile phone
• mobile home

Related words

• mobilization
• mobilize
• move
• automobile
• motion
• immobile

Usage notes

The city of Mobile, Alabama, is a separate word, recorded in Spanish about 1540 as Mauvila, the name of an Indian people, perhaps from Choctaw moeli “to paddle”.^[2]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press