téléphoner French · revision 16711

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=1883, Albert Robida, Le Vingtième Siècle|origins=grc τῆλε, grc φωνή}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /te.le.fɔ.ne/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''téléphoner'''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|fr|téléphone|-er]].^(TLFi)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary) The English verb is recorded from 1878.^(TLFi) [[téléphone]] was first a French coinage (1809) from [[grc|τῆλε|tr=têle|t=far off]] and [[m|grc|φωνή|tr=phōnḗ|t=sound, voice]], on the model of [[télégraphe]]; it was later applied to Reis's apparatus ([[de|Telefon]], 1861) and, from 1876, taken from [[en|telephone]], the name of Bell's invention.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Albert Robida's ''Le Vingtième Siècle'' (1883) has ''téléphoner à quelqu'un de'' (do something), “to tell someone by telephone to”.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Alphonse Daudet (1885, ''Tartarin sur les Alpes'') uses it without an object, “to make a telephone call”, Courteline (1893) has it transitively, “to send by telephone”, and the past participle ''télégramme téléphoné'' is recorded in 1892.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007) The reciprocal ''se téléphoner'' appears in Maurois (1928).^(TLFi) Sports writers used ''téléphoné'' (1937) for a blow or attack that is too easily foreseen, after ''télégraphier'' in the same sense (1909); ''c'est téléphoné'' now means “that's too predictable”.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1809 – [[téléphone]] coined in French.^(TLFi)

+ * 1878 – English ''to telephone''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1883 – ''Téléphoner à quelqu'un de'', Robida.^(TLFi)

+ * 1885 – “To make a call”, Daudet.^(TLFi)

+ * 1893 – Transitive, Courteline.^(TLFi)

+ * 1928 – ''Se téléphoner'', Maurois.^(TLFi)

+ * 1937 – ''Attaques téléphonées'', in ''L'Auto''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # ''(intransitive)'' To [[m|en|telephone]], call, ring: ''téléphoner à quelqu'un'', ''téléphone-moi demain''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(transitive)'' To communicate by telephone: ''téléphoner une nouvelle à quelqu'un''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''Se téléphoner'': to call each other.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(TLFi)

+ # ''(figurative, sport)'' To [[m|en|telegraph]], make obvious in advance, ''c'est téléphoné'', it is all too predictable.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[retéléphoner]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[téléphone]]

+ * [[téléphonique]]

+ * [[télégraphier]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}