Showerthoughts @lemmy.world AbouBenAdhem @lemmy.world 1y ago

"Phones" were named after the Greek word for "sound", but modern phones are used in silence as often as not.

19 comments

Just like clicking on floppy disk save icons everyday when you've never held an actual floppy disk
- when you’ve never held an actual floppy disk
  
  This makes me feel old and I'm only in my mid twenties
- Give it a few years and the term "computer" might be superseded. We'll forget where the word originated.
  
  Well, most people already forgot where it originated. That is from people whose job was to compute stuff by using tables, calculators and paper.
- I feel like my obsession with Mavicas has just been dismissed as invalid.
Our phones are more like personal digital assistants than actual PDAs ever were.
- I would argue that they are PDAs and smart phone is just an alternate branding. The name PDA just didn't take off because it sounds dorky.
  
  yep, PDAs became more widely attractive when phone functionality got added. or you have an iPod Touch.
That's why I like the German word for them - "Handy."
- It would be weird asking my parents for a handy on my birthday
  
  How are your arms?
- So in Germany it's not weird to ask someone for a handy?
  
  Cause that means a totally different thing around here
- UK English they're called phones, but cell phones are often called mobiles too.
  
  Maybe less so now that home phones (landlines) aren't really a thing so all phones are generally mobiles.
There was a time where such multi devices was thought would come from watches, which would be much more telling.
- My clumsyness would destroy a high tech watch. My phone is relatively safe in my pocket. Won't be switching over to that.
- Now we have snartwatches, but they're much more limited, and often require a Bluetooth connection to a smartphone.
In my native language, the word for phone is an archaic word for wire. Which is also ironic.

19 comments