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mobile

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Mobile and -mobile

English

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin mōbilis (“easy to be moved, moveable”), from moveō (“move”). The video-gaming sense was coined by Richard Bartle to describe NPCs or creatures capable of moving "under their own power" in the 1978 video game Multi-User Dungeon. Bartle retracted an earlier claim of his that it was from the kinetic sculpture sense of mobile (for the "unpredictable but limited" motion of the hanging ornaments).

Pronunciation

Adjective

mobile (comparative more mobile, superlative most mobile)

  1. Capable of being moved, especially on wheels.
    Synonyms: movable; see also Thesaurus:in motion, Thesaurus:movable
    Antonyms: fixed, immobile, immovable, sessile, stationary
    a mobile home
  2. Pertaining to or by agency of mobile phones.
    mobile number
    mobile internet
    • 2012 December 1, “An internet of airborne things”, in The Economist‎, volume 405, number 8813, page 3 (Technology Quarterly):
      A farmer could place an order for a new tractor part by text message and pay for it by mobile money-transfer. A supplier many miles away would then take the part to the local matternet station for airborne dispatch via drone.
  3. Characterized by an extreme degree of fluidity; moving or flowing with great freedom.
    Synonyms: fluxive; see also Thesaurus:runny
    Mercury is a mobile liquid.
  4. Easily moved in feeling, purpose, or direction; excitable; changeable; fickle.
    Synonyms: excitable, fickle; see also Thesaurus:changeable
  5. Changing in appearance and expression under the influence of the mind.
    mobile features
    • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Another London Life”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 176:
      His finely cut features were capable of every variety of expression; they were, to use a French epithet, expressive as their epithets for all social qualities usually are, mobile in the extreme.
  6. (biology) Capable of being moved, aroused, or excited; capable of spontaneous movement.
    Synonym: motile
    Antonym: sessile

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

mobile (plural mobiles)

  2. (sculpture) A kinetic sculpture or decorative arrangement made of items hanging so that they can move independently from each other.
    Antonym: stabile
  4. (telephony, UK, Ireland, India) Ellipsis of mobile phone.
    Synonym: cell phone
    • 2000, “Idioteque”, in Kid A, performed by Radiohead:
      Mobiles squerking, mobiles chirping / Take the money and run
    • 2009, Michela Wrong, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower:
      Pinned against my neighbours, I could feel small hands, fleeting as lizards, fluttering lightly through my pockets in search of money, mobile, wallet.
  6. (uncountable, Internet) The internet accessed via mobile devices; the version of a product seen on mobile devices.
    There are many business opportunities in mobile.
    The bug affects mobile, but not desktop.
  7. One who moves or can move (e.g. to travel).
    Antonym: immobile
    • 1963, Highway Research Record:
      […] if the constrained "immobiles" are given the same transportation access as the unconstrained "mobiles". […] We concentrated on a mobile teenager population that had good public transportation or automobile access and a […]
    • 1988 February 25, Nigel Nicholson, Michael West, Managerial Job Change: Men and Women in Transition, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 132:
      Table 6.5 does indeed show that non-changers were more contented […] For Table 6.7 shows that even when we take account of the initial differences between the mobiles and immobiles, the mobiles' ratings of job characteristics move strongly in a positive direction while all the immobiles' record negative shifts. So the pattern is clear and consistent: jobs get better for movers and worse for non-movers.
    • 2005 July 19, Ian M. Philpott, The Royal Air Force: The Trenchard Years, 1918–1929, Casemate Publishers, →ISBN:
      One ex-airwoman recalls meal times for both 'mobiles' and 'immobiles', when they sat on backless benches at long bare tables. The 'immobiles' brought in their own food, crockery and cutlery. A free-standing iron range was used […]
  8. An object capable of moving under its own power.
    Antonym: inanimate
  10. (by extension, video games, dated) A creature or NPC that can navigate and interact with the game world (now often shortened to mob).
    Synonyms: mob, mobile object, agent, non-player character
    • 1984, Simon Rockman, “Rockman Files: MUD, MUD, Glorious MUD”, in Games Computing, volume April 1984, page 89:
      MUD has a type of character called a mobile. These are monsters controlled by the program such as the Dragon and the Vampire. To kill these a band of adventurers need to hunt down the creature hurling a combined strength to vanquish it.
    • 1991, “Modems and Mazes: Life and Death Over the Phone”, in The Gamesman, volume December 1991, page 16:
      Even mundane mobiles are very advanced. They incorporate other expert systems that enable them to fight (often better than the players); […]

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Japanese: モバイル (mobairu)
  • → Kurtöp: མོ་བ་འིལ (mobail)
  • → Persian: موبایل (mobâil)

Translations

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *mew- (0 c, 3 e)

Further reading

Anagrams

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Czech

Pronunciation

Noun

mobile

  1. vocative singular of mobil

Danish

Adjective

mobile

  1. definite of mobil
  2. plural of mobil

Finnish

Etymology

< English mobile

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmobile/, [ˈmo̞bile̞] (nalle-type declension)
  • IPA(key): /ˈmobileˣ/, [ˈmo̞bile̞(ʔ)] (hame-type declension)
  • Rhymes: -obile
  • Syllabification(key): mo‧bi‧le
  • Hyphenation(key): mo‧bi‧le

Noun

mobile

  1. mobile (kinetic sculpture)

Declension

More information nominative, genitive ...
More information first-person singular possessor, singular ...
More information nominative, genitive ...
More information first-person singular possessor, singular ...

Further reading

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French

Etymology

    Learned borrowing from Latin mōbilis. Doublet of meuble.

    Pronunciation

    Adjective

    mobile (plural mobiles)

    1. mobile
    2. moving
    3. movable

    Antonyms

    Derived terms

    Descendants

    Noun

    mobile m (plural mobiles)

    1. (physics) moving body
    2. mobile (decoration)
    3. motive (for an action, for a crime)
    4. mobile phone; ellipsis of téléphone mobile
      Synonyms: cell, téléphone cellulaire, cellulaire, téléphone mobile, téléphone portable, portable

    Further reading

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    German

    Pronunciation

    Adjective

    mobile

    1. inflection of mobil:
      1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
      2. strong nominative/accusative plural
      3. weak nominative all-gender singular
      4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

    Italian

    Etymology

    Probably borrowed from Latin mōbilis.

    Pronunciation

    Adjective

    mobile m or f by sense (plural mobili, superlative mobilissimo)

    1. movable, mobile
      Antonym: immobile
    2. moving

    Derived terms

    Noun

    mobile m (plural mobili)

    1. (in the singular) piece of furniture (item of furniture)
    2. (in the plural) furniture
      Synonyms: mobilia, mobilio, arredamento
    3. (heraldry) charge
    4. mobile (cellular phone)
      Synonyms: cellulare, telefonino
      Antonym: fisso

    Further reading

    • mobile in Collins Italian-English Dictionary
    • mobile in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
    • mobile in garzantilinguistica.it – Garzanti Linguistica, De Agostini Scuola Spa
    • mòbile1 in Dizionario Italiano Olivetti, Olivetti Media Communication

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    Latin

    Pronunciation

    Adjective

    mōbile

    1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of mōbilis

    References

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    Norwegian Bokmål

    Adjective

    mobile

    1. definite singular of mobil
    2. plural of mobil

    Norwegian Nynorsk

    Adjective

    mobile

    1. definite singular of mobil
    2. plural of mobil

    Portuguese

    Verb

    mobile

    1. inflection of mobilar:
      1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
      2. third-person singular imperative

    Romanian

    Noun

    mobile

    1. plural of mobilă

    Swedish

    Adjective

    mobile

    1. definite natural masculine singular of mobil

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