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> from the literal translation of the Chinese word

Well, they both refer to hands, I guess. The Chinese word is 手机 shouji "hand machine". "Phone" is 电话 dianhua "electric speech". Those two words aren't related.



Interesting, thanks for the clarification!


"Handphone" is from 手提电话, meaning hand-held telephone.


Also interesting to me in this area was the emergence of the so-called IP卡 ("IP card") referring to pre-paid long distance telephone cards sold within mainland China. These were big business until the mid to late noughties.




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