On Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:30:13 -0500, Stephen Sprunk
wrote:

On 30-Mar-12 15:08, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
Graham Nye wrote:
On 30/03/2012 18:40, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
Guy Gorton wrote:
What is a cell phone? Used in prisons?

Oh, good grief. You use the concept in your country.

You aren't aware that mobile phones use a cellular network?

I expect he is. Guy is pointing out that you are cross-
posting to two newsgroups where we call such devices
mobiles.

So if "cellular" is an international concept, is it acceptable to everyone
else for Guy to pretend to be obtuse?

"Cellular" is; "cell" isn't. Either way, though, users don't care about
technical details of radio network organization; they care that their
phone isn't tied to a fixed location, i.e. it is "mobile".

In the United States, they are called cell phones and mobile phones.

Or wireless phones. Using country-specific terminology likely wouldn't
have drawn comment if you weren't cross-posting to newsgroups for other
countries where that term _isn't_ used.

Some networks marketed the service with one term or the other. I believe
"cell" was the marketing term by some networks in early days

IIRC, they always used the full word, "cellular". It was customers who
shortened it from three syllables to one, which is often the impetus for
the development of American slang.

A bit like the American use of the verb "orient" rather than
"orientate". Orient is concerned with the East.

My current "favourite" Americanism is the announcement on a delayed
aeroplane that "the airplane will be taking off momentarily".

Noah Webster has a lot to answer for...

--
Frank Erskine