handphone

English

two different handphones

Alternative forms

• hand phone, hand-phone

Etymology

hand +‎ phone. For the sense of mobile phone, compare with Chinese 手機／手机 (shǒujī, literally “hand machine”) and Korean 손전화 (sonjeonhwa, literally “hand telephone”).

Noun

handphone (plural handphones)

1. (Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, South Korea, Hawaii) A mobile phone.
2. (rare, chiefly obsolete) A telephone receiver or handset.

Descendants

• → Korean: 핸드폰 (haendeupon)

References

• “hand phone, noun.” under “hand, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2021; “handphone, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.