miniphone

English

Etymology

From mini- +‎ phone.

Noun

miniphone (plural miniphones)

1. A small phone.
   • 1969, Norman Spinrad, Bug Jack Barron, New York: Walker and Company, →LCCN, page 249:

     Barron reached into his sportjac pocket (a gun? Howards thought wildly in a moment of pure panic), and put what looked like a small transistor radio with two speaker-grids down on the desk. One of those new Bell miniphones, Howards thought. “That’s why,” said Jack Barron. “Recognize it, don’t you? It’s one of those new miniphones that feed directly into the phone-satellite circuit, and it’s been picking up every word you said, feeding it directly back to New York to three separate vidphone recorders. […]”

   • 2001 December 20, Angelica Woods, “Christmas Photo Album & Letters to Santa”, in The Winona Times, volume 119, number 51, Montgomery County, Miss., page 15B:

     What I want for chrismas^[sic] is: Scooter samantha, million dollars, miniphone, make up, bracelet, pajama with bears on it, Gooze, cotton candy maker, nail set, cappucino^[sic] set, ration set, new groovy shoes, teaset, jewelry set, P. S. I love you

   • 2003 February 28, Michelle Nolan, “Inventive WWU students snare design awards”, in The Bellingham Herald, page B2:

     The “miniphone” would be voice-activated, with a minimal keypad, and would run on methanol-powered fuel cells, with recharging needed only once every two weeks.

   • 2003 July 6, Steve Batie, “I can hear buzzing in my ears”, in Lincoln Journal Star, Lincoln, Neb., page 1G:

     Besides coming in several hippie-ish colors (i.e. not black) and being almost impossible to cradle under your chin (a harbinger of the cellular miniphone if there ever was one), the single most telling characteristic of the Ericaphone was that it did not ring.

   • 2011, David Sloma, Brainjob, Web of Life Solutions:

     Zenor wondered why they all insisted on shouting so much, even though they all had miniphones in their ears, allowing them to stay in constant communication with each other.

   • 2013 October 25, Andrea Eldridge, “Smartwatches beam communication to wrist”, in Evansville Courier & Press, page 5B:

     After decades of watching Dick Tracy, George Jetson, Captain Kirk and other characters talk into their tiny wrist communicators, the day has finally arrived where you, too, can have a miniphone on your wrist.