# Hands Free Devices, Bluetooth & Douches. Get your damn vocabularly correct! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 14, 2010, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137 "2010-06-14T14:41:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/21 "2010-06-14T23:06:07Z")
> [@Blaster\_Master](#): > > You know why people say bluetooth instead of hands free device? Because it’s half as many syllables. That’s also why they don’t call their mouse a bluetooth, becasue mouse is shorter. Then why don’t they call the hands-free device a mouse? “Lookit that douche walkin’ down the street with a mouse in his ear!” ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/22 "2010-06-15T03:24:57Z")
Why is the wireless communication protocol called “bluetooth” (as long as we’re on the subject)? ---
**Author:** ![Mbossa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mbossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mbossa)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/23 "2010-06-15T03:31:18Z")
> [@whole\_bean](#): > > Still, I agree that it’s douchey to sport a bluetooth headset when not driving, talking (and I’ll add) or expecting a call. I guess that makes me a douche. I use mine primarily to listen to music. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/24 "2010-06-15T03:39:39Z")
You listen to music in ONE ear? Ooookay, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/25 "2010-06-15T03:40:16Z")
> [@whole\_bean](#): > > I’ll tell you when I done eating this burrito I heated up in the microwave. Huh. I nuked mine. ---
**Author:** ![Mbossa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mbossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mbossa)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/26 "2010-06-15T03:49:14Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > You listen to music in ONE ear? > > Ooookay, I guess. Nope. I use one of them fancy-pants stereo headsets. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/27 "2010-06-15T04:07:58Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Why is the wireless communication protocol called “bluetooth” (as long as we’re on the subject)? No idea, but it existed for quite a while with no real application. One application finally becomes a market success, and now we have a lame pitting about it. To hell with fifteen years, it’s pretty much commonly accepted now. I’ll make a bolder prediction: within five years somehow ‘bluetooth’ will be a verb. And only then will **fusoya** be able to do a proper pitting, and one I will probably agree with. Unless it turns out I like bluetoothing. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/28 "2010-06-15T04:10:40Z")
Aw, hell, let’s make it two years. If I like bluetoothing, I want to get started sooner. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/29 "2010-06-15T04:19:51Z")
Bluetooth, eh? Give me a moment to wiki it. I do believe that is an analogous case. But the real answer is mix yourself gin and tonics until the irritation goes away. (Note: This plan may be bad for your liver if you have a history of stubbornness.) ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/30 "2010-06-15T04:42:25Z")
I give this rant an F- for being on a topic that doesn’t interest me at all on a personal level. Next time, consider what \*I \*would want to read, and go with that. ---
**Author:** ![OneChance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/74df32/32.png) [@OneChance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneChance)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/31 "2010-06-15T05:12:10Z")
> [@fusoya](#): > > …to use with your cell phone… Funny that you’re anal about the word Bluetooth but you use “cell phone” when you should probably use “mobile phone.” ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/32 "2010-06-15T07:16:47Z")
Yeah, but Bluetooth is brutally cool, and hands free device is tragically lame. That’s why they named it Bluetooth in the first place; it’s not like it ever had, you know, blue teeth, and shit. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/33 "2010-06-15T07:27:48Z")
Welcome to the English language, where brevity and easily identifiable markers (like the Bluetooth protocol), determine what things are called, not whatever is most technically precise. Sorry OP, you lose. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/34 "2010-06-15T11:49:06Z")
> [@Lobot](#): > > Do people really call them “USBs”, though? I’ve only heard “USB stick”, “thumb-drive”, etc. In Spanish, at least, nobody calls them any other way. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/35 "2010-06-15T17:17:40Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Why is the wireless communication protocol called “bluetooth” (as long as we’re on the subject)? I was making a delivery at Tektronix circa 1998-99 and they had a display for something called “Bluetooth” and it caught my eye because I wondered if it had anything to do with Harald Bluetooth and according to the poster it did–but that’s all I remember about it, I don’t for the life of me recall why a communications protocol had anything to do with a first millenium Danish king but [Wikipedia](http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHarald_I_of_Denmark&ei=B7UXTJzBHOnnnQedlfXECg&usg=AFQjCNHRvywK3UEPxeAX1usY4gkIaKsDIQ&sig2=9SQUJ1YKbPh5lHlyJy-RYg)has the following to say: > [@](#): > > “Bluetooth” now more commonly refers to the Bluetooth wireless specification designed by Ericsson to enable cable-free connections between computers, mobile phones, PDAs, printers, etc. Bluetooth in these devices is named after this king. The Bluetooth logo consists of the Nordic runes for his initials, H and B (Long-branch runes version). **Harald is regarded as having united dissonant tribes in Denmark and parts of Norway and southern Sweden under a single king.** [11] So I guess it actually makes sense. _Bolding mine._ ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/36 "2010-06-15T18:57:44Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > **fusoya** : > > 1. You’re right. > 2. Who gives a fuck? Amen. I was going to say something much snarkier and meaner, but this pretty much sums it up. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/37 "2010-06-16T06:52:21Z")
> [@whole\_bean](#): > > Jeez, now this is getting to me. > > The genericization of the brand names Hoover, Xerox, Jacuzzi and Formica is really not analogous. This sort of mistake leads to bad LSAT scores. I’m not so sure about this. It seems to me that both Xerox and Bluetooth are metonymies, that is, calling something by something it’s related to. Xerox is closely related to photocopies, and Bluetooth is closely related to those little bulby things people put in their ears. Once usage gets “settled,” it doesn’t really matter that Xerox also makes printers and that keyboards can use Bluetooth. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/38 "2010-06-16T09:35:45Z")
> [@OneChance](#): > > Funny that you’re anal about the word Bluetooth but you use “cell phone” when you should probably use “mobile phone.” Actually you should use the term “wireless phone”. That’s been the proper term since the phones were the size of a Thermos! ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/39 "2010-06-16T09:43:11Z")
> [@Lobot](#): > > Do people really call them “USBs”, though? I’ve only heard “USB stick”, “thumb-drive”, etc. Yeah, they do. Customers ask for them by a huge variety of names, and it’s not uncommon to hear “Where do you keep the USBs?” ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137/40 "2010-06-16T14:14:48Z")
> [@fusoya](#): > > Here’s your daily lesson from Professor fusoya. “Bluetooth” is a wireless communication protocol. That douchey thing you put in your ear to use with your cell phone is called a “hands free device” or “head set”. It is NOT called a Bluetooth, even though many use the Bluetooth protocol to link to your phone. A “douche” is someone who wears a hands free device when not either driving or talking, and refers to it as their bluetooth. I fear the Great Educationally Unwashed have outpaced your vocabulary preferences. Google\* “bluetooth” and see for yourself how often it’s used for that hands-free cell phone thingy. Or enter “bluetooth” on Amazon and see how many of the hits are for the “hands-free device.” See, here’s a tip, Grandpa: words can mean more than one thing, language evolves, and the incompetent, undereducated polloi are the ones that force it to evolve, pedants notwithstanding. One can make an argument the polloi are ahead of us all, from the standpoint of language evolution. \*Google, e.g., is rapidly becoming a verb as well as a company. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hands-free-devices-bluetooth-douches-get-your-damn-vocabularly-correct/543137.md?page=3)