Audiphone

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A device worn in or near the ear designed to improve hearing for those with hearing loss
2. An instrument that amplifies sound to assist people with impaired hearing
3. A gadget used to enhance auditory perception by making sounds louder or clearer

Etymology: "Audiphone" is a modern coinage built from two classical elements. The first, "audi-", comes from Latin "audire", "to hear", and the second, "-phone", comes from Greek "phōnē", "sound" or "voice." Combining Latin and Greek roots this way was a common habit of inventors and trade-name writers, who used the prestige of classical learning to make new machines sound scientific. The "-phone" ending became especially productive once the telephone made it familiar, so that many devices for sound, from gramophones to megaphones, were named on the same pattern. Here the compound means, in effect, a device that carries sound to the ear. The word therefore describes its purpose directly, with no older sense to shift from.