Robocall

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. An automated telephone call delivering a prerecorded message or advertisement without a live operator; a mass call made by machines for marketing or notification purposes; an unsolicited telephonic outreach generated by computerized systems
2. A phone call produced by automated technology that plays prerecorded audio for promotional or informational reasons without human interaction; a bulk calling method using machines to reach many recipients; a telephonic spam or alert initiated electronically
3. A machine-generated call that sends prerecorded spoken content automatically to numerous recipients; an impersonal advertising or warning call made without a human caller; a technology-driven unsolicited telephone communication designed for mass contact

Etymology: "Robocall" is a plain compound: "robo-", a clipped form of "robot" (itself from Czech "robota", meaning forced labour), joined to the ordinary English noun and verb "call." The combination made sense once automated dialling systems let machines place telephone calls in large numbers without an operator on the line. The earliest recorded use appears around 1998, in the Associated Press Newswire, the wire service that supplied news copy to newspapers and broadcasters. The timing fits the era: the term arrived as automated telemarketing and recorded messages were becoming common enough to need a name of their own. Its meaning has stayed close to its parts. A robocall is still a call whose voice is machine-generated or prerecorded, though the word is now used as both noun and verb, so people speak of robocalling a list of numbers as easily as receiving a robocall.

Synonyms: automated call, telemarketing call, spam call