telephone

The story

1. French · borrowed fromtéléphone“kind of megaphone; system of communication using musical notes”
2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*bʰeh₂-“to say; to speak”
3. Ancient Greek · derived fromφωνή“sound; voice”
4. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*kʷelh₁-“to turn end-over-end; to revolve around; hence, to dwell, sojourn”
5. Ancient Greek · derived fromτῆλε“afar, far away, far off”
6. English todaytelephone

The noun is derived from tele- (prefix meaning ‘from a distance’) + -phone (suffix denoting a device which makes a sound), modelled after German Telephon (“early apparatus converting sound into electrical signals”) (dated) (now German Telefon). The word was first used to refer to the modern device in 1876 by the Scottish-born Canadian-American engineer Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922). The prefix tele- is ultimately derived from Ancient Greek τῆλε (têle, “afar, far away, far off”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁- (“to turn end-over-end; to revolve around; hence, to dwell, sojourn”). The suffix -phone is ultimately from Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound; voice”), and Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to say; to speak”). Noun sense 4.4 (“system of communication using musical notes”) is borrowed from French téléphone (“kind of megaphone; system of communication using musical notes”). The verb is derived from the noun.

Words from the same roots