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0 pointshnlmorg5mo ago0 comments

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

0 comments

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

hnlmorgOP5mo ago

That would explain my surprise then. :)

slg5mo ago

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

simmons4mo ago

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...

slg4mo ago

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.

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