the.com/handset
The phone part you hold, back when phones had parts to hold.
means The handheld piece of a phone — mouthpiece, earpiece, and all the buttons in between — that you pick up to talk.
from A straightforward compound of 'hand' and 'set,' coined in the early telephone era when the receiver-and-transmitter unit was literally a 'set' of equipment sized to fit the hand, distinct from the wall- or desk-mounted base that housed the bell and wiring.
- origin era
- Named when telephones had separate base units
- legal meaning
- Still the official term in phone contracts
- irony
- Modern handsets barely touch your hand