mobile (adj.)
late 15c. (Caxton), "capable of movement, capable of being moved, not fixed or stationary," from Old French mobile (14c.), from Latin mobilis "movable, easy to move; loose, not firm," figuratively, "pliable, flexible, susceptible, nimble, quick; changeable, inconstant, fickle," contraction of *movibilis, from movere "to move" (from PIE root *meue- "to push away"). Sociology sense of "able to move into different social levels" is by 1927. Mobile home "large trailer permanently parked and used as a residence" is recorded by 1936. Mobile phone is by 1983.
A long-distance number tapped into an Illinois Bell car telephone glowed red on a display. Satisfied that the digits were correct, I pushed the SEND button on the phone. Familiar beeps and boops emerged from the handset. Then, before a half block of this Chicago suburb had slipped by, I was in contact with my New York office. ["Take-along Telephones," Popular Science, October 1983]
Mobile
city in Alabama, U.S., attested c. 1540 in Spanish as Mauvila, referring to an Indian group and perhaps from Choctaw (Muskogean) moeli "to paddle." Related: Mobilian.
mobile (n.)
early 15c. in astronomy, "outer sphere of the universe" (the primum mobile), from mobile (adj.); the artistic sense "abstract sculpture consisting of parts suspended so as to move," associated with Alexander Calder, is by 1939, perhaps a shortening of mobile sculpture (1936). Now-obsolete sense of "the common people, the rabble" (1670s, short for Latin mobile vulgus) led to mob (n.). Middle English had moble, moeble (mid-14c.) "movable goods, personal property," from Old French moble, meuble, from the Latin adjective, but in 16c. this was replaced by furniture.
updated on February 06, 2019
Dictionary entries near mobile
moan
moat
mob
mob-cap
mobile
Mobile
mobilisation
mobilise
mobility
mobilization
mobilize
