- radio (n.)
- "wireless transmission with radio waves," 1907, abstracted from earlier combinations such as radiophone (1881) and radio-telegraphy (1898), from radio-, comb. form of radiation (q.v.). Use for "radio receiver" is first attested 1913; sense of "sound broadcasting as a medium" is from 1913. Wireless remained more widespread until World War II, when military preference for radio turned the tables.
It is not a dream, but a probability that the radio will demolish blocs, cut the strings of red tape, actuate the voice "back home," dismantle politics and entrench the nation's executive in a position of power unlike that within the grasp of any executive in the world's history. ["The Reading Eagle," Reading, Pa., U.S.A., March 16, 1924]
- radio (v.)
- 1919, from radio (n.). Related: Radioed; radioing.