6 ms·
Is "burner phone" Aussie slang or something? Anyway, I like it :)
by tannhaeuser 7y ago
Is "burner phone" Aussie slang or something? Anyway, I like it :)
- duxup 7y agoIt's a common term in the US in my experience, although as the article indicates it is usually a phrase related to crime.
- abathur 7y agoThe article suggests criminality, but I think use varies a little by context. Buying a phone to do crimes? I imagine want to pay cash, get something that doesn't require a global account login, and is cheap enough to toss early and often. Going through security points where you suspect they'll try to force you to log into accounts, dupe the device's contents, possibly install malware, etc? You might just be looking for something you can buy once you arrive that isn't prohibitively expensive and will be easy to re-sell for most of what you paid before you leave.
- trashcan 7y agoIt just means disposable or difficult to track. You burn it when you are done with it to eliminate a link to you.
- DonHopkins 7y agoIf you've never heard "burner phone" before, you probably haven't watched Breaking Bad, which was an American cultural touch-stone she mentioned, and an excellent show you'll likely enjoy (and I envy you being able to binge watch it now, instead of waiting week after week for the next episode): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad And then there's the "Breaking Phones" spin-off we really all wanted to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNzS66iRcjw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNzS66iRcjw The actual "Breaking Bad" spin-off "Better Call Saul" has a whole multi-episode sub-plot about burner phones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89wXeYOls7o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89wXeYOls7o You can see how cool that burner phone must have made her daughter feel!
- coldtea 7y agoNot just Breaking bad. It's a very common term in all kinds of mafia/heist/drug dealing/espionage/etc stories, long before Breaking Bad.
- DonHopkins 7y agoYes, but she wrote in the article "It's my daughter who's breaking bad," not "It's my daughter who's like all kinds of mafia/heist/drug dealing/espionage/etc stories". I was referring to that specific cultural reference in the article.
- barrkel 7y agoThe Wire introduced (actually, misunderstood and propagated the misunderstanding of) the term.
- BigJono 7y agoInteresting. Misunderstood in what way? The definition used in The Wire is the only one I've heard.
- barrkel 7y agoIt originally meant handgun, one that's been used in too many crimes, i.e. is too hot to have in your possession. The Wire promulgated the phone meaning of burner AFAIK. It may have been misunderstood by the police (Ed Burns was a police officer) or it may have been by analogy. (I learned this from articles over a decade ago, very hard to pin down now that the phone meaning is widespread.)
- dllthomas 7y agohttps://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/burner-phone https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/burner-phone "The writers of The Wire did not invent this term. Evidence of its use can be found at least as far back as 1996, when the rapper Kingpin Skinny Pimp used it on the song One Life 2 Live: “Talkin’ on the burner phone, bumpin’ hutch.”"
- felipemnoa 7y agoSubstitute burner phone with "disposable prepaid phone" and you will get the idea.
- microcolonel 7y agoNot sure exactly, but when I pull out my Nokia 106 in Ontario or Michigan, there's a good chance somebody will refer to it as a burner phone. A phone you can afford to discard ("burn"), either after its first use, or on a schedule, or when something risky happens (you are moving a lot of money or material, cheating on your spouse, etc.). I just use it for the standby time (nearing a month).
- PopeDotNinja 7y agoBurner phones are a central plot point in later seasons of The Wire, too.