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The Death of the "Cell Phone"

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the out-with-the-old dept.

PreacherTom writes "Once upon a time, the now-eponymous portable derived its name from the small sections (deemed "cells") into which a city was divided in order to keep voice calls smooth and uninterrupted. Today, it almost seems that voice calls are the least-used function of most phones, while Wi-Fi and WiMax use ever-growing amounts of network bandwidth. Both make the "cellular" moniker obsolete. Is it time for a new name, or is a rose by any other name still as sweet?"

1 of 393 comments (clear)

  1. Re:As a linguist... by famebait · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    So why did cellphone catch on?

    Because Americans love their big, glitzy, technical or formal-sounding words. Nowhere else, for example, do people say "vehicle" in everyday talk when they obviously just mean "car". I presume this is because they actually find them impressive, or hope that others will. Most other places it just makes people cringe.

    --
    sudo ergo sum