Typetalk

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A British telephone relay service that lets deaf and hard-of-hearing callers type messages which an operator reads aloud to a hearing person
2. A UK text-based phone service in which operators turn typed words into speech for a listener and speech back into text for a deaf caller
3. The name of a British relay system that enables people with hearing or speech impairments to make calls by typing to a human intermediary

Etymology: Typetalk was a UK telephone relay service launched by British Telecom in 1992, letting deaf and hard-of-hearing people type messages that a human operator read aloud over the phone, with replies typed back. The name is a plain compound of "type" and "talk," coined as a brand for that service rather than drawn from older vocabulary, so there is no older sense to trace. The word's real story is therefore recent and commercial. It belongs to the wave of telecommunications names of the late twentieth century, when companies needed memorable labels for new services, and it was never a general term for typed conversation. Because it was a brand, its meaning stayed tied to one scheme rather than drifting into everyday use.