teleport

Etymology

It is formed from English tele- + transport, with the ending of transport taken for the second element;^[2][3][4] the noun of 1878 was perhaps modelled on telephone.^[2] The verb, from 1931, was formed after teleportation, which Etymonline thinks Charles Fort coined the same year from tele- and the ending of transportation;^[2][3] the American Heritage Dictionary, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Dictionary.com call the verb a back-formation from teleportation.^[5][6][4] Merriam-Webster takes it from the prefix and port in the sense "to carry", and Collins from tele- and port.^[7][8] The prefix is from Ancient Greek τῆλε (tēle, “far off”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hypothetical device that carries people or things instantly from one place to another: 1878, in the Times of India.^[2] A year earlier E. P. Mitchell had called such a machine a telepomp in a story in the New York Sun.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The 19th-century noun stayed an isolated experiment in early science fiction.^[2] The verb arose with Charles Fort's writings on supposed paranormal events: the OED's first record is in his Lo! (1931),^[2] where the related noun teleportation was a term of psychical research.^[3] Etymonline dates the verb to 1940, used of religious miracles.^[3] From 1949 it was also intransitive, "to transport oneself instantly",^[2] and by 1957 it was a science-fiction term for travel by advanced technology,^[3][9] while Merriam-Webster defines it by psychokinesis.^[7] Science fiction then gave the noun new senses: a person who can teleport (1952, in Theodore Sturgeon) and an act of teleporting (1983).^[2]

Timeline

• 1878 – noun, a hypothetical device for carrying people or things instantly to another place.^[2]
• 1931 – verb, to move a person or thing instantly from one place to another.^[2]
• 1940 – verb, of religious miracles.^[3]
• 1949 – intransitive verb, to transport oneself instantly.^[2]
• 1952 – noun, a person who is able to teleport.^[2]
• 1983 – noun, an act of teleporting.^[2][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. Especially in science fiction, to move a person or thing across a distance instantly: The crew was teleported to the planet's surface.^[8][2][9]
2. To travel instantly in this way.^[2][9]
3. To move an object or person by psychokinesis.^[7]

Noun

1. An act of teleporting.^[2][9]
2. A hypothetical device that teleports people or things.^[2]
3. A person who is able to teleport.^[2]

Word family

• teleportation

Related words

• transport

Usage notes

A separate teleport, recorded from 1980, is a hub that connects different forms of telecommunication, especially satellites with networks on the ground; the OED forms it from tele- (as in telecommunication) and port "harbour",^[2][9] and the Oxford Dictionary of English notes that it was first the name of such a centre in New York.^[6][4]

References

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