an electronic machine that sends and receives typed messages over wires, popular before computers.
Blend of 'telephone' and 'type,' coined in the early 1900s. Combined Greek 'tele-' (far) with the mechanical concept of typing to create a distance-communication device.
Teletypes were the texting of the 1950s-70s—journalists, military operators, and businesses relied on these clacking machines to send instant written messages across the world, making them the direct ancestors of email.
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