| 释义 |
▪ I. telephone, n.|ˈtɛlɪfəʊn|
[f. Gr. τῆλε afar, tele- + ϕωνή voice, sound, -ϕων-ος -voiced, -sounding (as in εὔϕωνος sweet-voiced).]
1. An instrument, apparatus, or device for conveying sound to a distance. Now chiefly Obs.
†a. Name for a system of signalling by musical notes, devised by Sudré in 1828.
†b. An instrument like a fog-horn, used on ships, railway trains, etc., for signalling by loud sounds or notes.
†c. A tube or other device for conveying the sound of the voice to a distance, as a speaking-tube.
d. lovers' telephone or string telephone, a toy consisting of two stretched membranes or metal disks connected by a tense cord which mechanically transmits sound-waves from the one to the other.
(The name has also been applied by writers to an apparatus invented by Wheatstone, called by him ‘the Enchanted Lyre’, consisting of a rod connected with a sound-board, by which sounds (e.g. of a musical instrument) were conveyed from one room to another.)
1835[implied in telephonic a.]. 1844Times 19 July 6/5 Yesterday week was a levee day at the Admiralty, and amongst the numerous models..was Captain J. N. Tayler's telephone instrument... The chief object of this powerful wind instrument is to convey signals during foggy weather. 1844Illustr. Lond. News 24 Aug. 118/1 The Telephone; a Telegraphic Alarum. Amongst the many valuable inventions..that of the ‘Telephone, or Marine Alarum and Signal Trumpet’, by Captain J. N. Taylor, R.N. 1849Chambers' Jrnl. 30 June 408 Mr. Whishaw's inventions: among these are speaking-tubes,..we are, it seems, to be able to speak to a distance without any connecting tube at all: across the inner quadrangle of a building, for instance, by means of large concave gutta-percha reflectors..the portable telephone would be available where the telegraph..does not admit of application. 1851Catal. Exhibition I. 442 [F. Whishaw's] Gutta percha telephone. 1860Wheatstone Patent Specif. No. 2462 Telephones in which musical pipes or free tongues are acted upon by wind. Compressed air or gas is admitted to the pipe by means of a valve acted upon by the magnetized needle of an electro⁓magnet. The alternation of long and short sounds may be grouped in a similar manner to the long and short lines in the alphabet of a Morse's telegraph. 1877Knight Dict. Mech., Telephone, an instrument for conveying signals by sound... The term, until lately, has been particularly applied to a signal adapted for nautical or railroad use, in which a body of compressed air is released from a narrow orifice and divided upon a sharp edge, in the manner of a steam-whistle. 1879tr. Du Moncel, The Telephone 2 One step more led to the membrane employed in string telephones.
2. An apparatus for reproducing sound, esp. that of the voice, at a great distance, by means of electricity; consisting, like the electric telegraph, of transmitting and receiving instruments connected by a line or wire which conveys the electric current.
a. Applied to an instrument devised by P. Reis in Dec. 1861, and called by him (in German) Telephon.
In this the sounds were received on thin vibrating membranes, whose motion was transmitted electrically to an electromagnetic receiver. This was never perfected as a practical means of communication.
1866R. M. Ferguson Electricity 257 The Telephone. 158. This is an instrument for telegraphing notes of the same pitch. Reis's Telephone (invented 1861) accomplishes this in the following way. 1883S. P. Thompson P. Reis 49 We have now shown that Philipp Reis was the undisputed inventor [1861] of an instrument which he called the Telephone. 1889Preece & Maier Telephone 3 Philipp Reis, of Friedrichsdorf, wrote [in German] in 1868:—I succeeded in inventing an apparatus..in which also one can produce tones of all kinds at any desired distance by means of the galvanic current, I named the instrument ‘Telephon’.
b. Applied to the ‘Electrical Speaking Telephone’ of Alex. Graham Bell, introduced in 1876, and to its various modifications by Elisha Gray, Edison, Hunnings, etc.
In this the sounds of speech or music are received on and reproduced by thin vibrating disks or diaphragms. on the telephone, (a) connected with a system of telephonic intercommunication; (b) making a telephone call, ringing up; using or by means of the telephone.
1876A. G. Bell in Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sc. (May 10), I placed the membrane of the telephone near my mouth. 1876― Patent Specif. No. 4765. 8 (Dec. 9), The telephones being illustrated separately in figs. 19 and 20. 1878Edison in N. Amer. Rev. CXXVI. 534 The phonograph will perfect the telephone, and revolutionize present systems of telegraphy. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 154/2 The telephone and microphone have far distanced any previous attempts to convey sounds from one place to another. 1879tr. Du Moncel, The Telephone 8 Mr. Elisha Gray..arranged in fact about the 15th Jan. 1876, a system of speaking telephones. 1884C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iii. 189/2 The telephone proper differs from other instruments of a like class, in that it reproduces instead of merely conveying vibrations. 1885List of Subscribers, Classified (United Telephone Co.) (ed. 6) 18 Other people have their own tradesmen, who are doubtless also on the telephone. 1900C. H. Chambers Tyranny of Tears i. 36 (The telephone bell rings.).. There's some one on the telephone—forgive me. (Goes to telephone.) 1905F. Young Sands of Pleasure ii. iv, The hotel in the Rue de Calais was not on the telephone. 1906Westm. Gaz. 29 Aug. 10/1 ‘It is the wonder of wonders’ exclaimed Sir William Thomson (now Lord Kelvin) after he had tested the first telephone shown to the public at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. 1925F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby ii. 35 Mrs. Wilson called up several people on the telephone. Ibid. vii. 138 That's Tom's girl on the telephone. Ibid. ix. 214 You threw me over on the telephone. 1934G. B. Shaw Village Wooing 135 Oh, speak English: you're not on the telephone now. 1963K. Amis One Fat Englishman xi. 126 Hearing her voice on the telephone in the next room brought an unwelcome reminder of the small hours. 1965J. H. Roberts ‘Q’ Document iv. 101 Those moments when he was forced to abandon conversation with Cooper to talk on the telephone.
c. transf. and fig.
1878Marquis of Salisbury Sp. Newsp. Press Fund 19 May, He will see the telephone [i.e. the reporters] by which these arguments and facts are conveyed to persons still open to conviction. 1898J. Arch Story of Life xvi. 396 Now the agricultural labourer has his political telephone of his vote, his Board Schools, his County Council, his Parish Council.
d. ellipt. for telephone call, sense 3 below, esp. in Indian English. Cf. phone n.2 1.
1935F. W. Crofts Crime at Guildford xxi. 298 A telephone to the manager of the hotel produced the needed information. 1979P. Nihalani et al. Indian & Brit. English i. 176 ‘Your telephones have not been very clear.’ ‘He gave me a telephone.’..In BS..the phrase ‘telephone call’, or simply ‘call’, would be used.
3. attrib. and Comb., as telephone bell, telephone call, telephone caller, telephone cord, telephone dial, telephone drum (sense 1 b), telephone extension, telephone instrument, telephone line, telephone message, telephone office, telephone operator, telephone-receiver, telephone-stud, telephone survey, telephone table, telephone transmitter, telephone trumpet, telephone-user, telephone wire; telephone-answering adj.; telephone bill = phone bill s.v. phone n.2 3; telephone book = telephone directory below; telephone booth, box = phone booth, box s.v. phone n.2 3; telephone directory, a book containing an alphabetical list of the names, addresses, and numbers of telephone subscribers; spec. (with def. article) such a list covering a particular locality and printed by a telephone company; telephone exchange, the office or central station of a local telephone system, where the various lines are brought to a central switchboard, and communication between subscribers is effected; sometimes applied to the switchboard itself, as in an ‘automatic exchange’; telephone girl, a girl employed at the switchboard to connect the wires so as to put two persons into communication; telephone kiosk = phone booth, box s.v. phone n.2 3; telephone number = phone number s.v. phone n.2 3; colloq., a large number (esp. with reference to a sum of money or a prison sentence); telephone pad, a writing pad for noting telephone messages, etc.; telephone set, the assembly of components including a telephone transmitter, receiver, etc., which make up a telephone (sense 2 b); telephone tapping vbl. n., the act of making a connection to a telephone wire so as to listen in on private telephone conversations; cf. tapping vbl. n.1 a; so telephone tap, an instance of telephone tapping; telephone token, a small counter designed to operate a public telephone and on sale in certain countries of Europe; cf. jeton 2.
1963Times 5 Feb. 11/4 This is the *telephone-answering machine of the coke department... The machine will record your order or message... Please speak clearly... Please speak now.
1900*Telephone bell [see sense 2 b (b) above]. 1907H. Wyndham Flare Footlights xxviii, The warning tinkle of the telephone bell on the office wall.
1935C. Isherwood Mr Norris changes Trains viii. 117 In the present state of Arthur's finances, it was hardly to be expected that he would have settled his *telephone bill.
1915J. Buchan 39 Steps viii. 201, I picked up the *telephone book and looked up the number of his house. 1975D. Lodge Changing Places iii. 132, I got out the telephone book and began ringing round.
1895Funk's Stand. Dict., *Telephone-booth. a1910[see call v. 35 h]. 1982T. Holme Devil of Dolce Vita xxii. 178 There is [in Venice] a plethora of squares, some scarcely bigger than a telephone booth.
1904McClure's Mag. Feb. 405 Golden could snatch only two opportunities to step into the *telephone box that morning. 1980I. Murdoch Nuns & Soldiers i. 44 I'm in a telephone box near Victoria Station.
1885List of Subscribers, Classified (United Telephone Co.) (ed. 6) 9 *Telephone Call Rooms have just been opened at Clapham and Kilburn. 1910‘O. Henry’ Strictly Business 13 She pointed out to him clearly how it [sc. a play] could be improved by introducing a messenger instead of a telephone call. 1980I. Murdoch Nuns & Soldiers iv. 243 The Count was sitting..in torment, waiting for her telephone call.
1948‘J. Tey’ Franchise Affair x. 103 Your *telephone callers: were they male or female?
1855(May 10) Bill, Polytechnic Inst., Lecture by J. H. Pepper, Esq., on Professor Wheatstone's experiments.., illustrated by a *Telephone concert, in which sounds of various instruments pass inaudible through an intermediate hall, and are reproduced in the lecture room.
1878Edison in N. Amer. Rev. CXXVI. 535 Were..our *telephone-conversation automatically recorded.
1934Webster, *Telephone cord. 1966‘A. Hall’ 9th Directive xv. 143, I..fiddled with the telephone cord.
1960Cooke & Markus Electronics & Nucleonics Dict. 478/2 *Telephone dial, a switch operated by a finger wheel, used to make and break a pair of contacts the required number of times for setting up a telephone circuit to the party being called. 1972‘E. McBain’ Sadie when she Died viii. 81 There is still all day tomorrow to twirl those little holes in the telephone dial and ring up this or that hot number.
1907Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 397/3 Private *Telephone Directory..Spanish roan, lettered in gold, 24 leaves, to stand or hang. 1913W. P. Eaton Baru Doors & Byways 81 We fail to find this sort of thing any more thrilling or ‘literary’ than the telephone directory. 1969B. Weil Dossier IX iii. 20 The Service are always up to date with their telephone directories.
1844Illustr. Lond. News 24 Aug. 118/1 The Indicator..to be placed on the *Telephone Drum, to denote the signals made... The Telephone gamut notes are arranged for numbers either by the public or private key.
1879Print. Trades Jrnl. xxviii. 6 On Saturday the *Telephone Exchange commenced operations.
1945C. Milburn Diary 2 Jan. (1979) 261 The telephone handy men had arrived to instal a *telephone extension up into Alan's room. 1977‘J. le Carre’ Hon. Schoolboy ii. xiv. 322 A telephone extension hung on the wall.
1893Chicago Tribune 2 July 13/3 The *telephone girl sits on her high stool..as she produces alternate order and chaos at her switchboard. 1906Daily Chron. 27 June 2/3 An installation which was going to do away with the telephone girl.
1844*Telephone instrument [see sense 1].
1931G. B. Shaw Fabian Ess. p. viii, A couple of pennies to drop into the slot in a *telephone kiosk. 1974M. Babson Stalking Lamb ii. xxiv. 178 George had entered the telephone kiosk and could be clearly seen inside the brightly lit box.
1882T. D. Lockwood Pract. Information for Telephonists 163 Now, to consider the possible disturbing influence that electric light wires may exercise upon *telephone lines. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 261 Music line, broad-band circuit for carrying programme (including speech), as distinct from a telephone line.
1982A. Brookner Providence ix. 109 Supposing there is a *telephone message waiting for me at the hotel?
1885List of Subscribers, Classified (United Telephone Co.) (ed. 6) 3 Edwin Fox & Compy..*Telephone No. 5,110. 1950T. S. Eliot Cocktail Party i. i. 17 You have the address, and the telephone number? 1963L. Deighton Horse under Water xliv. 171 It looked like he was going up the river for a telephone number.
1878G. H. Lewes Jrnl. 21 Mar. in Geo. Eliot. Lett. (1956) VII. 16 We went to the *Telephone office to have the Telephone explained and demonstrated.
1894Life 19 Apr. 256/1 One of the young lady *telephone operators might be listening to our talk and we don't want our telephone taken out. 1964M. McLuhan Understanding Media xxiv. 243 Boors, who inundate defenseless telephone operators.
1923Sci. Amer. Feb. 115/3 When this *telephone pad is not in use it rests out of sight beneath..the telephone. 1967A. Wilson No Laughing Matter iii. 386 Jack, seeing the telephone pad, did not want to break the mood by asking Marcus if he had rung Gladys.
1884List of Subscribers (London & Globe Telephone Co.) 3 Any form of *telephone transmitter or receiver. 1906Blackw. Mag. June 832/2 The tired clerk at the telephone-receiver rebuffed our advances.
1911Encycl. Brit. XXV. 552/1 Each *telephone set was equipped with a special key. 1976P. Lovesey, Swing, swing Together xxx. 146 If anything develops here, you can use the telephone set to leave a message at the Yard.
1889Preece & Maier Telephone 111 The object of the Button Telephone is to replace the press button of an ordinary electric bell by a *telephone-stud, which permits not only to ring up a person but to converse with him.
1976National Observer (U.S.) 13 Mar. 1/6 The Knight-Ridder newspapers asked a similar question in a *telephone survey in January and found 81 per cent agreement.
1929‘E. Queen’ Roman Hat Mystery iii. xvii. 251 They..shook out the pages of the telephone-book in the bedside *telephone-table. 1977M. Russell Dial Death ii. i. 39 The figure slumped across the telephone table.
1958‘E. McBain’ Killer's Payoff (1960) xv. 153 There was no intention of maintaining a *telephone tap in the strictest sense of the word.
1958Listener 12 June 971/1 Some of the evidence had been obtained by *telephone tapping. 1978Peace News 25 Aug. 9/1 It is important to note that firstly, the Special Branch ‘ambush’ was only made possible by some combination of mail interception and telephone tapping.
1963‘D. Cory’ Hammerhead x. 127 He..asked for a glass of cognac and a *telephone token.
1884*Telephone transmitter [see telephone receiver above]. 1937Discovery Jan. 27/2 The use of this material for.. telephone transmitter diaphragms, is suggested.
1881‘Mark Twain’ Let. 31 Jan. in C. Clemens Mark Twain (1932) 36 In one place the *telephone wire running along six inches above the comb [of the roof] is covered. 1978‘A. York’ Tallant for Disaster xii. 172, I want a start made on getting the telephone wires back up again.
▸ telephone sex n. = phone sex n. at phone n.2 Compounds 2.
1982United Press Internat. Newswire (Nexis) 13 Feb. A South Side man and his wife are suing an entertainment magazine for publishing their home phone number in an ad for a so-called *telephone sex service. 1998Pi Mag. (Univ. Coll. London Union) Nov. 27/1 We all have our vices, but mine is a little more serious than most. I am addicted to telephone sex. I cannot stop calling.
▸ telephone tag n. colloq. (orig. and chiefly N. Amer.) a situation (esp. in business) in which two people attempting to communicate by telephone repeatedly miss one another and have to leave a message asking to be called back; cf. tag n.2 1.
1979Amer. Banker 3 July 7 It installed telephone answering machines on many telephones so people could leave messages and avoid playing the game of ‘*telephone tag’, which, it was found, occupied an inordinate number of man-hours. 1995Sci. Amer. Sept. 53/2 Portable phones and pagers are certainly convenient—after all, two out of three business calls still end in ‘telephone tag’.
▸ telephone soliciting n. orig. and chiefly U.S. telemarketing; = phone soliciting n. at phone n.2 Compounds 2.
1920N.Y. Times 3 Mar. 31/4 Young man for *telephone soliciting in advertising department of daily newspaper. 2006J. Mutz & K. Murray Fundraising for Dummies (ed. 2) xviii. 281 It's a safe bet that telephone soliciting will become less and less effective..as more and more people use call-blocking devices..to weed out the calls they don't want.
▸ telephone solicitor n. orig. and chiefly U.S. (originally) a person who sells telephones (rare); (in later use) a telemarketer; = phone solicitor n. at phone n.2 Compounds 2.
1904N.Y. Times 20 Mar. (Mag. section) 1/1 Some *telephone solicitors got after him and urged him to let them install a telephone from his up-town depot to his house. 1917N.Y. Times 24 Oct. 23/3 (advt.) Telephone solicitors, selling experience preferred. 1952S. Eisenberg How to earn Income selling Products & Services by Phone i. 4/2 If you can handle the English language..you can be a telephone solicitor. 2007Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo) (Nexis) 9 Feb. 2 Even when the customers refused, the telephone solicitors said, ‘If you don't go through the procedures, you'll be receiving phone calls forever.’
▪ II. ˈtelephone, v.
[f. prec. n.]
1. a. intr. To convey sound to a distance by or as by a telephone; esp. to send a message or communicate by speaking through a telephone.
1880Times 22 Sept. 7/6 Mr. Bell..has succeeded in telegraphing, or rather ‘telephoning’, along a beam of light. 1881Chicago Times 4 June, Mr. Smith..telephoned immediately to headquarters about the matter. 1899Westm. Gaz. 25 July 4/2 Instruments by which telephoning without wires can be successfully accomplished.
b. trans. To convey or announce by telephone (in quot. 1879 by sound generally). Also fig.
1878W. Tegg Posts & Telegraphs iii. 305 It is said that the results of these experiments were ‘telephoned’ to the Boston Guide. 1879Calderwood Mind & Br. 139 He will interpret such signs as whistling, calling,..and..proceed to the execution of the fresh orders so ‘telegraphed’, perhaps I should say ‘telephoned’. 1882Daily News 25 Aug. 3/1 You may safely defer setting out..until No. 2 has been telephoned. 1888Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 127/1 This [Wheatstone's ‘magic lyre’] only answers for telephoning musical sounds to short distances. 1888Montreal Weekly Witness 13 June 1/4 The news was at once telephoned to Mrs. Cleveland. 1908Kipling Lett. to Family vi. 47, I hear the hard trail telephone a far-off horse's feet. 1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 44 Almond tree... What are you doing in the December rain?.. Do you telephone the roar of the water over the earth?
c. To speak to or summon by telephone.
1877Telegraphic Jrnl. 1 Sept. 201/2, I [sc. Prof. Graham Bell] telephoned the leader of the band. 1889Westgarth Austral. Progress 153 As he might be there, they would ‘telephone’ him. 1894Howells in Harper's Mag. Feb. 378 She telephoned you on the impulse of the moment.
2. To furnish with telephones; to establish a system of telephones in (a place).
1901Speaker 14 Dec. 296/1 The London County Council prepared..estimates for telephoning London in 1898. 1904Daily News 19 Apr. 2 If the United Kingdom were ‘telephoned’ in the same proportion there would be nearly 800,000 instruments on its various exchange systems, instead of some 250,000 only.
Hence ˈtelephoned ppl. a.; ˈtelephoning vbl. n.; also ˈtelephoner, one who telephones.
1884Whitaker's Almanack 385/1 Remarkable trials of long distance telephoning. 1891Cent. Dict., Telephoner. 1894Telephoned words [see telegraphed]. 1902Westm. Gaz. 26 Aug. 1/3 When one has had actual experience of a thoroughly telephoned town. 1918A. Bennett Pretty Lady xviii. 116 The telephone-bell rang... The telephoner was Gilbert. 1932New Statesman 23 Jan. 87/1, I have often watched one of these fanatical telephoners sitting opposite the telephone with his hand on the receiver. 1972New Yorker 21 Oct. 31/3 We picked up a mimeographed sheet that tells the telephoners what to say. |