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I'm reasonably certain that I am about as old if not slightly older than the invention of in-ear headphones. I'm also reasonably certain that I have always used
by 0xffff2 1y ago
I'm reasonably certain that I am about as old if not slightly older than the invention of in-ear headphones. I'm also reasonably certain that I have always used "headphones" to refer to any small portable speaker designed to inject sound directly into the ears. I'm absolutely certain I have never used the term "earphones", although "ear buds" was/is a common synonym for in-ear headphones.
- hnlmorg 1y agoI’m probably around 2 decades older than the invention of earphones and people definitely did used to call them that here in the UK.
- conductr 1y agoThen the US English is winning out because we never said earphones over here. I’m much older so have a clear memory of when they hit the market. We said earbud for a while but that was a momentary distinction and it seems we’ve mostly reverted to our generic term of headphones (which lacks any distinction on form factor ) so we use it for pretty much any and all cases. I actually think the AirPods naming helped this as it’s kind of a clunky product name that’s nearly a misnomer if you consider iPod is still a part of our vernacular. I don’t hear people saying “where are my AirPods?” Instead it’s “where are my headphones?” Had it been called AirBuds then maybe it would have stuck since ear buds was a thing. As I think back, I feel like earbud is distinctly tied to the corded iPod accessory. As that died out, so has the term.
- userbinator 1y agoYou are... 150 years old? https://patents.google.com/patent/US454138A/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US454138A/en This nipple is adapted for insertion into the ear, and is ordinarily covered with a rubber cover to lessen the friction against the orifice of the ear.