Dialed

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Formed the number on a telephone by pressing buttons or turning a dial
2. Used a telephone to call a specific number or place
3. Completed entering digits on a device to establish a telephone connection

Etymology: The most striking twist here is that the telephone came late to a word that began as a timekeeping tool. "Dial" started out in Middle English as "diall," meaning a sundial or the face of a clock, and it reaches English from Middle French "dyal," which in turn comes from Latin "diālis," meaning "daily" or "concerning the day." That Latin adjective is built on "diēs," the word for "day," so the same root sits behind the Spanish "día." The telephone sense grew out of the clock face. A dial was the round plate marked with numbers or hours that you read by turning or pointing, and once telephones used rotating number plates, people spoke of dialing a number in the same way. The verb "dialed" is simply the past tense of "dial" in this sense, so the word carried the sun-and-clock meaning forward into the age of the phone.

Synonyms: called, phoned, contacted, reached, connected

Antonyms: disconnected, ignored, dropped