「遠方的聲音」-電話（Distance voice - telephone）

1892年，貝爾從紐約打電話到芝加哥
圖片來源：Wikipedia

1876年三月，貝爾（Alexander Graham Bell）獲得了電話在美國的第一個專利。不過，電話「telephone」這個字，其實也是字首與字尾拼起來的呢！
In March 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded a patent for the electric telephone by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). It was the first patent to be awarded for telephone.

字首tele-是「遠方」的意思；而字尾-phone是「聲音」的意思。兩個字合起來就是「遠方的聲音」的意思！
The prefix tele- means "distant" and the suffix -phone means "sound, voice". The actual meaning for "telephone" is "distant voice".

不過，電話並不是第一個使用telephone這個詞的器具。在1844年，約翰‧泰勒船長（John Taylor）發明了用四個空氣喇叭讓船隻在大霧中還可以互相聯絡的方法，而telephone這個詞就是他發明的。而1860年約翰‧菲力普‧雷斯（Johann Philipp Reis）發明了原形電話，可以將聲音轉成電波。
However, the word "telephone" was not invented by Bell. Caption John Taylor invented this word on his invention for using for air horns to communicate with vessels in foggy weather. Johann Philipp Reis invented Reis Telephone in 1860, which was the first instrument that can convert voice into electrical impulses.

參考文獻 References：

Wikipedia. telephone