telephone phrase anachronisms

[darkoshi]

dial a number
misdialed a number
speed dial
pick up the phone
hang up the phone
leave (take) the phone off the hook
unplug the phone
answering machine
hogging the line
party line

[to be continued]

I admit, some of these terms aren't totally anachronisms yet, for people who still have landline phones. But the "dial" ones definitely are, as only antique or retro phones have dials on them nowadays.

Comments

[frith]

party line
leave (take) the phone off the hook
unplug the phone
headset
speed dial
call fowarding

[darkoshi]

Thanks!

I've just looked up "party line", as I only had a vague idea of what it meant... I associated it with late night TV commercials that advertised adult chat "party lines".

So... now I know the original meaning, which was before my time and of which I was previously unaware.

Yesterday when I did a search on "hogging the line", the results all mentioned party lines, which confused me as I still thought that had to do with adult chat lines where multiple people could talk to each other (but now it makes sense). In my time, "hogging the line" meant one person in a household being on the phone for a very long time such that other people in the household couldn't use it.

I would consider headsets and call forwarding not to be anachronisms yet as those terms are still used with pretty much the same meaning as in the past. But I'll update my post with the others!

[frith]

You're welcome! I never lived in a situation where several households shared the same line (where you ran the risk that nosy so and so might be listening in on your call) but multiple phones on the same line within the house was a thing. Your annoying little brother could be spying on you from another room! I also considered switchboards and international exchanges to be other examples of archaic phone tech, as well as dialing "0" for operator. Coin operated phones have mostly vanished as well, along with big fat phone books -- the yellow pages, the white pages and a section of blue pages. Satellite phones were a prestige item. See the Will Smith (DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince) music video "Parents Just Don't Understand".