phone

Forms

1.A device for transmitting conversations and other sounds in real time across distances, now often a small portable unit also capable of running software etc.
- Daragh's on the phone at the moment. He'll call you when he's finished.
- There's an old-fashioned phone in the doctor's waiting room - it doesn't work anymore, of course.
- My phone ran out of battery.
2.A person's telephone number (as a means of contact); digits.(colloquial)
- Do you know where my cell phone is?
- You should phone Tom as soon as you can.
- I left my phone in the car.
3.A speech segment that possesses distinct physical or perceptual properties, considered as a physical event without regard to its place in the phonology of a language.
- Do you know where my cell phone is?
- You should phone Tom as soon as you can.
- I left my phone in the car.

1.To call (someone) using a telephone.
- Phone me as soon as you land at the airport.
- Her father told her to phone him to pick her up in case it started raining heavily.
- "You bloody fools!" shrieked Nickle, stung by a sudden dreadful inspiration, "we've let him phone. He has got through!"

Very common· #493

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁-der.

Ancient Greek τῆλε (têle)lbor.

French télé-

Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂-der.

Proto-Hellenic *pʰōnā́

Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ)der.

French -phone

French téléphonebor.

English telephone

English phone

Clipping of telephone; first attested in 1884.