cable

Word family

• cabling
  nounC1
• cablecast
  verbC2
• cableway
  nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

These four words all name something long and thin that carries electricity or a signal, but learners need to feel the differences. A wire is the simplest item: a single thin metal strand, often bare, like the wire inside a fuse or a paperclip pulled straight. A cable is bigger and more organised — several wires bundled inside one plastic or rubber cover, strong enough to run under streets or behind walls. A cord is the everyday American word for a flexible cable that ends in a plug, such as a power cord or an extension cord, and it sounds friendlier than 'cable'. A lead is the British equivalent of cord for short connecting cables, especially for chargers, headphones, and pets — so a Brit says 'pass me the charger lead', while an American says 'pass me the charger cord'. In stores and instruction manuals, 'cable' is the safest neutral word in both countries.

Common collocations

Etymology

Cable came into English in the 13th century from Old North French 'cable', which itself came from Late Latin 'capulum', meaning a rope used for catching or tying animals. The original meaning in English was a thick rope used on ships to hold an anchor — that is still alive in the 'strong rope' sense today. From the 1850s, when the first underwater telegraph lines were laid across the sea, the word stretched to cover any thick line of wires inside a protective cover, and then to the messages those lines carried. The TV and verb senses are 20th-century extensions of the same idea: many wires bundled together, doing useful work over long distances.