Meaning

noun electronic equipment that converts sound into electrical signals that can be transmitted over distances and then converts received signals back into sounds

noun transmitting speech at a distance

verb get or try to get into communication (with someone) by telephone

originThe 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…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0