Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Early 20th century ·1958
Modem
modulator demodulator
- Meaning
- A device that converts digital signals to analogue for transmission and back.
- Source words
- modulator + demodulator
- Coined by
- AT&T engineering
- Year
- 1958
Background
Coined internally at AT&T for the Bell 101 dataset, the first commercial modem. By 1965 the word had left the lab and entered general tech vocabulary.
Early 20th century
Industrialisation generated new things that needed new names, fast. Motoring, electricity, telecommunications, and urban pollution all produced portmanteaus within a generation of their arrival.
Two words, one coinage.
Browse every portmanteau on the shelf — or cross over to the loanwords atlas.