Handset

How to spell handset

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce handset

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does handset mean?

1. nounThe part of a telephone that is held in the hand, or a mobile phone device itself.

Handset in a sentence

• She lifted the handset and dialled the office number.

• The network offered a free handset with every new contract.

Where does handset come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound that joins two very old Germanic words: 'hand', which has meant the grasping end of the arm since Old English 'hond', and 'set', a noun sense meaning a complete piece of apparatus or equipment. The term arose with telephone technology in the early twentieth century to name the part of the apparatus that a person literally holds in the hand, combining the earpiece and mouthpiece in one unit. Earlier telephones separated these into a wall-mounted mouthpiece and a hung earpiece, so the 'handset' was named to highlight that everything was now held together in a single hand-held piece. As telephones evolved, the word stretched to cover the portable unit of a cordless phone and, later, the mobile phone device itself. The spelling is mercifully regular, since both halves are common everyday words written exactly as they sound.

How the word is built

• hand (the body part / held in the hand)
• set (a piece of equipment, from Germanic root)