Plural of handset; the portable part of a telephone that contains the receiver and transmitter, or any similar portable communication device.
Compound of 'hand' and 'set', meaning something designed to be held in hand, popularized with telephone technology in the early 1900s.
The word 'handset' became essential vocabulary only after the telephone was invented—before 1876, there was no need for a word describing a hand-held communication device.
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