the.com/call
A summons across distance that still ends with someone saying goodbye too fast.
means To cry out, summon, name, or reach someone by voice or telephone across a stretch of space.
from From Old English ceallian, 'to shout,' though much of its strength came in via Old Norse kalla, 'to cry out, summon, name' — the speech of the Vikings, who knew a thing or two about hailing each other across cold water. It's possibly a cousin of words scattered through the Germanic and even Celtic and Slavic families that all circle the same idea: making noise loud enough to fetch a person. The telephone sense is a much later borrowing of that ancient shout, shrunk down to fit in your hand.
- first words
- Alexander Bell asked Watson to come here in 1876
- ghost ring
- phantom vibrations fool most regular phone carriers
- birdsong roots
- animal calls predate human speech by eons
- final word
- hang up has outlived the receivers it described
- emergency code
- 911 was chosen for fast rotary dialing
alexander graham bell — scottish inventor patented the telephone in 1876, revolutionizing long-distance communication
call of duty — best-selling first-person shooter video game franchise launched by activision in 2003
the call — 1920 short story by cormac mccarthy exploring existential themes and human connection