# Should there be a new word/ name for mobile phones? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 25, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-there-be-a-new-word-name-for-mobile-phones/1013384 "2025-01-25T16:42:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2025, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-there-be-a-new-word-name-for-mobile-phones/1013384/61 "2025-01-27T00:28:09Z")
True, but it still tracks to Petey and is close enough for my world. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-there-be-a-new-word-name-for-mobile-phones/1013384/62 "2025-01-28T14:32:23Z")
Disappointed that people are having this Schlocky side discussion and yet none of you has suggested _handbrain_ yet… ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2025, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-there-be-a-new-word-name-for-mobile-phones/1013384/63 "2025-01-30T06:44:25Z")
Japanese call them “smart phones” スマートフォン _sumaatofon_ or sumaho スマホ _sumaho_ for short. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-there-be-a-new-word-name-for-mobile-phones/1013384/64 "2025-02-01T09:45:22Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > That is too equivocal of a statement. It should be something like, “I wouldn’t trust Newt Gingrich with my pet rock, and it is actually a petrified mastodon turd. You have an admirable turn of phrase, but the correct word for it is “coprolite”. I have a 7 year old son. Dinosaur (and mastodon) shit is serious business when you are that age. ---
**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:** [February 1, 2025, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-there-be-a-new-word-name-for-mobile-phones/1013384/65 "2025-02-01T11:01:21Z")
I’m currently in the early stages of writing a cyberpunk detective novel set in the late 22nd century. A key plot element is the newly-introduced ubiquity of brain implants that allow instant telecommunication. These devices are called “phones”. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-there-be-a-new-word-name-for-mobile-phones/1013384/66 "2025-02-01T11:10:21Z")
Wasn’t there a film or tv show where the communication device was built into the hand, so in order to talk to someone you held your thumb to your ear and the pinky of the same hand to your mouth? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-there-be-a-new-word-name-for-mobile-phones/1013384/67 "2025-02-01T20:41:58Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I knew the first meaning, but not the second. Thanks for the clarification. Well, I was referring to when it is used as a noun, which is how it would be used if referring to a mobile phone. A “handy” in that sense, is sexual slang. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-there-be-a-new-word-name-for-mobile-phones/1013384/68 "2025-02-01T22:49:24Z")
Remember when we thought a communicator like on Star Trek would be so cool to have? Then a wrist one. Oh, wait that was Dick Tracy. You get the idea. We had phones stuck to walls for many years. We had cordless phones. Then internet. Now we cannot decide what to call our _Personal communication device_ I suppose Bell had to come up with the word _telephone_. He could of easily called it _talky-horn_ or _speecifier box_. I personally would of called it _hoot and toot_. You go anywhere and say _my phone_ instantly, everyone knows what you mean. That muscle type memory isn’t gonna be easy to erase. I think we’re stuck with _phone_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-there-be-a-new-word-name-for-mobile-phones/1013384.md?page=3)