- mobile (adj.)
- 1490, from M.Fr. mobile, from L. mobilis "movable," from movere "to move" (see move). The noun is early 15c. in astronomy; the artistic sense is first recorded 1949 as a shortening of mobile sculpture (1936). Mobile home first recorded 1940. The city in Alabama is unrelated, first recorded c.1540 in Sp. as Mauvila, referring to an Indian group and perhaps from Choctaw (Muskogean) moeli "to paddle."