phone

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /fəʊn/, US /foʊn/^[1]

phone¹ telephone

Etymology

The telephone is a shortening of telephone.^[2][3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A telephone: by 1878, in the Des Moines Register,^[2] or 1884 in American English according to Barnhart.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Century Dictionary of 1895 notes that the word was usually applied to the receiver, sometimes to the whole apparatus.^[2] The verb is from 1884^[2] or 1889.^[3][6] An earphone or headphone has been a phone since the early 20th century.^[4] Phone bill is from 1901, phone booth and phone number from 1906, and phone book from 1920.^[2] The word was long written ’phone.^[4]

Timeline

• 1878 – a telephone.^[2]
• 1884 – verb.^[2]
• 1901 – phone bill.^[2]
• 1906 – phone booth, phone number.^[2]
• 1920 – phone book.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A telephone.
2. An earphone or headphone.

Verb

1. To call or speak to by telephone.

phone² speech sound

Etymology

The speech sound is borrowed from Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound, voice”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *bhā- (“to speak, tell, say”),^[2][5][7] the root also of Latin fārī (“to speak”) and fāma (“report, reputation”), the source of fame.^[7] The Greek word also gave phoneme, phonetic and symphony.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

An elementary sound of spoken language: 1866.^[3][2][6]

Timeline

• 1866 – a speech sound.^[3][2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (phonetics) A speech sound considered without regard to its status as a phoneme or allophone.

Related words

• phonetic
• phonetics
• phonology
• phoneme
• telephone
• -phone
• fame

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.