# How long until we stop calling them "phones"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 21, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903 "2013-12-21T16:05:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/21 "2013-12-22T03:46:14Z")
Handiest app I find on my smartphone is the torch. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/22 "2013-12-22T05:56:20Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Handiest app I find on my smartphone is the torch. That sounds positively _dangerous_ in American English…A torch! On one’s smartphone! What won’t they think of next? ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/23 "2013-12-22T06:05:00Z")
> [@ski](#): > > I …but it seems like “smart phone” has become a bit of a misnomer. More like “handheld computer, with one of the features being telephony”. > … > Anybody agree? Do you see the use of the term “smart phone” fading out ever? I agree that it is not a phone but a handheld computer, but I don’t see the name “phone” fading out any time soon. Why should it? The word “phone” can simply include that type of handheld computer in its definition." I can’t see anybody calling it a “telephone” though. > [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > The whole topic about calling them phones reminds me of a joke someone posted on Facebook about a rumor that the newest iPhone would include a “voice chat” feature. Of course, a few people commented how excited they were at the prospect of having live voice chat on their phone. Yah, that’s a fun little gag to pull on somebody. I had the kidlet going for at least 5 minutes on that one. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/24 "2013-12-22T06:09:31Z")
Texting may work for friends and family, but if you want to contact a retail business, ringing their phone is sometimes still the only way to get the answers you need. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/25 "2013-12-22T06:32:04Z")
Synchronized Porn Access Network Kit Information Technology. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/26 "2013-12-22T06:53:43Z")
In the Schlockiverse ([www.schlockmercenary.com](http://www.schlockmercenary.com)) small handheld computing/communication devices are called “handbrains”. It is what I now call my phone. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/27 "2013-12-22T14:13:43Z")
If you read Legion of Super-Heroes during the era that’s referred to as “TMK” or “v4” (1989-1994), you’d know that these are “Omnicoms”, albeit a thousand years earlier than anticipated. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/28 "2013-12-22T14:41:44Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > I agree that it is not a phone but a handheld computer, but I don’t see the name “phone” fading out any time soon. Why should it? The word “phone” can simply include that type of handheld computer in its definition." I can’t see anybody calling it a “telephone” though. They will continue to be called phones, and will sometimes be called “telephones” in advertisements, much like “auto” is still being used in ads for insurance and used car lots. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/29 "2013-12-22T14:50:43Z")
> [@ski](#): > > You’re probably right. We do still “hang up” too, even though I haven’t had a phone hanging on a wall in… 20? 30 years? That is certainly not where “hanging up” came from. Nearly all early models were table models. The early phone consisted of two parts connected by a wire. There was a tall vertical column that had a mouthpiece near the top and a hook on which was hung the earpiece. The hook was mounted with a spring and when you lifted off the earpiece to talk the hook moved up and opened the circuit to the operator to whom you asked for service. When you were finished talking, you hung the earpiece back up which depressed it and broke the circuit. Later the base would have a dial, but by then that style was pretty obsolete. Now the base was short and wide and contained the dial, while the earpiece and mike were integrated into one. The hook had been replaced by two buttons on the base, but you still “hung” the other part on them to break the circuit. I still have two of those old style phones (for reporting power failures or finding out when they will be fixed). The rest of the phones in my house just just have talk and off buttons. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/30 "2013-12-22T16:29:46Z")
wall phones don’t require a cable running to it. i think they would have been very popular because they would have cost less. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/31 "2013-12-22T20:47:30Z")
In our local Spanish usage it is called “el celular”, with no distinction between a smartphone and a regular mobie phone. But we still do “hang up” (“enganchar”). The thing is, “phone”, “cell phone”, “mobile”, “cell”, “smartphone” all flow more naturally off the lips than “communicator” or something like that. “Phone” will just be one of those words whose encompassed meanings have expanded and changed. A smartphone, come to think of it, is a palmtop (computer) or PDA with a live cellular network link and a camera. Yet palmtop/PDA seems to not have settled into the language fully before being superceded by the smartphone. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/32 "2013-12-22T21:32:55Z")
Some gee-whiz related linguist stuff: In Mandarin Chinese, the word for mobile phone is 手机 (Shouji), which literally translates as “Hand Machine”. While there are many machines that are operated in your hand (blowdriers, small vacuum cleaners, guns for certain definitions of “machine”), it’s generally acknowledged that the machine most likely to be seen in someone’s hand is a mobile phone. Their word for “Telephone” otherwise is 电话 (Dianhua), or “Electric Voice”. I’m not certain what they would call a two-way radio. In Japanese, they call them 携帯電話 (keitai denwa), which evidently translates as the much less poetic “Portable Telephones”, but as far as I’ve been able to determine, they’ll use “Keitai” as a shorthand similar to the British “Mobile”. That said, in English, I figure we might as well call them Tablets if we’re gonna call them anything, as they are in every way that matters simply small tablet computers (many tablets come with SIM card slots, further erasing any delineating design features). Though we already have Phablets, for smartphones in the 5-6 inch range (or tablets with SIM slots in the 5-6 inch range), usually sold by Samsung probably with spare parts leftover from making big screen TVs. Or go old-school and call them Palmtops like we used to call small hand-held computers. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/33 "2013-12-22T22:31:11Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > In the Schlockiverse ([www.schlockmercenary.com](http://www.schlockmercenary.com)) small handheld computing/communication devices are called “handbrains”. > It is what I now call my phone. Scott Adams says we’re all effectively cyborgs and smartphones are our “exobrains”. [http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/dilbert\_pocket/](http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/dilbert_pocket/) ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/34 "2013-12-22T22:54:03Z")
If they ever make it so we can rename Siri, I’m going with ‘Flowers’ or ‘Leaves’. > **[Roadmarks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadmarks)** > > Roadmarks is a science fantasy novel by American author Roger Zelazny, written during the late 1970s and published in 1979. > The novel postulates a road that travels through time, with a nexus placed every few years where a handful of specially gifted people are able to get on and off. The plot involves a series of assassination attempts on the protagonist, with short vignettes on each of the would-be assassins. > The book has two poetry collections as characters. Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baud... ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/35 "2013-12-22T23:09:14Z")
How long until we stop calling them “computers”? I barely ever use mine to solve logarithms. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/36 "2013-12-22T23:30:14Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > How long until we stop calling them “computers”? I barely ever use mine to solve logarithms. Isn’t the processor performing mathematical functions in the background in order to run your applications? Related tidbit: Do you know why they were called “computers” in the first place? The first computers were human beings who computed stuff (aka did math). Then when the machines came along and could do the same work, the name was transferred to them. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/37 "2013-12-22T23:53:50Z")
Mine is my trichorder. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/38 "2013-12-23T00:29:45Z")
I don’t dial my phone. I key it. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/39 "2013-12-23T01:11:13Z")
They are still evolving so don’t be so quick to name it. I mean they only just learned to start watching its user constantly. To guess it’s final name it will probably be a “mobile enslavement device.” If it develops any further then that we won’t be the ones naming it. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903/40 "2013-12-23T01:32:08Z")
In Shadowrun, the RPG I play (set in the 2050s-2070s) a very similar device used to be called a “pocket secretary” or “pocsec.” When they first referred to these in-game back in the late '80s through early 2000s they didn’t exist yet, but what was described was essentially a high-end smartphone. I sometimes call my iPhone my pocket secretary. The newer term is “commlink,” which I suppose would work too, but I like the “old-fashioned” version better. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-until-we-stop-calling-them-phones/676903.md?page=3)