Etymology

mobile

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Today it means: Capable of being moved, especially on wheels. Full definition →

Latin mōbilis
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mobile · adjective, noun1

  1. Latin · derived frommōbilis“easy to be moved, moveable”
  2. English todaymobile

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin mōbilis (“easy to be moved, moveable”), from moveō (“move”). The video-gaming sense was coined by Richard Bartle to describe NPCs or creatures capable of moving "under their own power" in the 1978 video game Multi-User Dungeon. Bartle retracted an earlier claim of his that it was from the kinetic sculpture sense of mobile (for the "unpredictable but limited" motion of the hanging ornaments).

Mobile · proper noun2

From the name of (Mobile Bay, from the name of) the Mobile tribe, perhaps from the name of a Native town somewhere in what is now central Alabama, various spelled Mabila or Maubila.

Words from the same roots

Latinmōbilis all →

automobile

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.