telephone

Etymology

First used by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 to refer to the modern instrument, but previous devices had been given this name, which was borrowed from French téléphone. Ultimately from Ancient Greek τῆλε (têle, “afar”) + φωνή (phōnḗ, “voice, sound”).

noun

1. (countable) A telecommunication device (originally mechanical, and now electronic) used for two-way talking with another person (now often shortened to phone).
2. (countable, historical) The receiver of such a device.
3. (Canada, US, uncountable) The game of Chinese whispers.
   And since the spring of 1995, no game of telephone has ended without some Simpsons-loving smart-ass dropping “purple monkey dishwasher” into the chain. October 27, 2013, Erik Adams, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “The PTA Disbands””, in The Onion AV Club
4. (Canada, US, uncountable, figurative) Chinese whispers; a situation in which an initial message has been distorted and misunderstood by being passed from person to person.
   In other words, Jones' career and life may have been derailed because a game of telephone went bad. October 3, 2017, David Dobbs, “The Touch of Madness”, in Pacific Standard

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To (attempt to) contact someone using a telephone.
   I came down like a wolf on the fold, didn’t I ? Why didn’t I telephone ? Strategy, my dear boy, strategy. This is a surprise attack, and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape. … 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad
   Having completed their task, Fireman Page telephoned from a lineside box to the next signal cabin, briefly reported the incident and said that, as no high explosive had dropped and the track was safe, they proposed proceeding "at caution". 1944 July and August, “Top Link Drivers: XXI—Driver H. Blunt, L.N.E.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 226
   The length ganger saw the train passing with the van derailed and promptly telephoned the Sandbach signalman, who restored his signals to danger, but not in time to stop the train before the final derailment occurred. 1961 November, “Talking of Trains: Derailment near Holmes Chapel”, in Trains Illustrated, page 652
2. (transitive) To convey (a message) via telephone.
   David telephoned his apologies to his mother. 2012, Robert Byron, Jan Morris, Europe in the Looking-Glass