In many languages, words for telephone are some variation of telephone, but in some, such as Swahili, the word for phone is completely different – simu. Let’s find out where it comes from and what other words are related to it.
The Swahili word simu means telephone, telephone message, telegraph or telegram. Some related words include:
- simu ya mkono(ni) / simu za rununu = mobile phone
- simu maizi = smartphone
- kibanda cha simu = telephone booth / box
- kitabu cha simu = telephone book
- piga simu = to make a call, to phone
It comes from Omani Arabic سيم (sīm – telegram), from Persian سیم (sim – wire, string, cord; silver, wealth, money [poetic]), from Middle Persian (ʾ)sym / (a)sēm (silver), from Old Persian 𐎿𐎡𐎹𐎶𐎶 (siyamam – silver), from Ancient Greek ἄσημον (ásēmon – silverware), from ἄσημος (ásēmos – unmarked, unintelligible, indistinct, silver) from ἄσημος, from σῆμα (sêma – mark, sign, token), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰyéh₂mn̥, from *dʰeyh₂- (to perceive, to see) [source].
Words from the same PIE roots include semaphore, semantic in English, semáforo (traffic light, semaphore) in Spanish, σημασία (simasía – meaning, sense, significance) in Greek, sim (string, wire, lead) in Azerbaijani, אסימון (asimón – token) in Hebrew, and сым (sym – wire) in Kazakh [source].
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented a device he called the telephone, which he described as an “apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically”. This was the first use of the word telephone to refer to the telephone we know today. Before then, it had been used to refer to other similar devices [source].
The English word telephone was borrowed from French téléphone (telephone), which comes from Ancient Greek τῆλε (têle – afar) and φωνή (phōnḗ – voice, sound) [source].
Other languages that do not use some version of the word telephone include:
- Armenian: հեռախոս (heṙaxos) – from եռա- (heṙa – far) and խոսել (xosel – to speak)
- Breton: pellgomz – from pell (far) and komz (to speak, talk)
- Chinese: 电话 [電話] (diànhuà) – from 电 [電] (diàn – lightning, electric power, energy, electricity) and 话 [話] (huà – speech, talk, words) – borrowed from Japanese 電話 (denwa – telephone, phone call)
- Finnish: puhelin – from puhella (to chatter)
- Icelandic: sími – from síma (cord, rope)
Incidentally, the similarity between the Icelandic word sími and the Swahili word simu is entirely coincidental, and they are not related.
Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/telephone#Translations
