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Comment by hnlmorg | Hacker News Reader

Completely off topic, but when did people start calling earphones “headphones”?

Headphones are the cans that cup your ears and strap around or over the head. Hence their name.

Whereas earphones go inside your ear.

I'm not sure if this is a "when did people start" situation. I have never heard a layman use "earphones" in casual conversation.

People definitely used to. Or at least in the UK they did.

Yeah, might be a UK thing. In Canada/the US I've only ever heard "headphones" and "earbuds" (a specific kind of headphone).

That would explain my surprise then. :)

Another example of us being separated by a common language. I don't think this has ever been common in the US.

I don't think it was ever common, since earphones weren't that popular until people started calling them "earbuds", but the term was historically used in at least some circles in the U.S. The 1988 Radio Shack catalog [1] seems to mention "earphone" 57 times, including two mono earphone products.

[1] https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Radio-Sha...

That’s interesting, although that seems to be a different usage than OP mentioned. It seems to be used interchangeably with headphones as it’s also being used to describe cables and jacks.

I'm reasonably certain that I am about as old if not slightly older than the invention of in-ear headphones. I'm also reasonably certain that I have always used "headphones" to refer to any small portable speaker designed to inject sound directly into the ears. I'm absolutely certain I have never used the term "earphones", although "ear buds" was/is a common synonym for in-ear headphones.

I’m probably around 2 decades older than the invention of earphones and people definitely did used to call them that here in the UK.

Then the US English is winning out because we never said earphones over here. I’m much older so have a clear memory of when they hit the market. We said earbud for a while but that was a momentary distinction and it seems we’ve mostly reverted to our generic term of headphones (which lacks any distinction on form factor ) so we use it for pretty much any and all cases.

I actually think the AirPods naming helped this as it’s kind of a clunky product name that’s nearly a misnomer if you consider iPod is still a part of our vernacular. I don’t hear people saying “where are my AirPods?” Instead it’s “where are my headphones?” Had it been called AirBuds then maybe it would have stuck since ear buds was a thing.

As I think back, I feel like earbud is distinctly tied to the corded iPod accessory. As that died out, so has the term.

You are... 150 years old?

https://patents.google.com/patent/US454138A/en

This nipple is adapted for insertion into the ear, and is ordinarily covered with a rubber cover to lessen the friction against the orifice of the ear.

In my corner of the world, we call them "earbuds" as a subset of headphones.

Earphones sounds antiquated. I could picture my father saying, "Let me connect my earphones to my gramophone so I don't disturb your grandmother."

Hahaha. To be fair, I do have a record table and my speakers are of the non-smart variety with copper wires connecting them to Cambridge Audio amplifiers. So you could easily be talking about me too.

I use them interchangeably. Webster appears to back me up here. However, I only say earbud when referring to the type that's inserted into the ear.

i've never heard anyone say "earphones"

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