TELE-

combining form (Science and Technology) Widely used as the first element of compounds relating to telecommunications, particularly in words for concepts which have been transformed by the use of telecommunications and information technology. Etymology: Originally from Greek tele 'afar, far off': the first two syllables of telephone, television, etc. History and Usage: Every innovation in telecommunications during the twentieth century seems to have set off its own explosion of words formed on tele-, which of course has a far longer history in the more general sense of 'at a distance'. It is the continuous improvement in telematics, the long-distance transmission of computerized information, which lies behind many of the new tele- words formed during the eighties. This proliferation began in the mid seventies, when such services as Ceefax and Oracle began to be referred to collectively as teletext. The later extension of this idea to text transmission via the telephone network, combined with a facility enabling the domestic user to transmit as well as receive text, created the conditions for a variety of services: teleordering (the ordering of books direct from publishers by booksellers) was followed by teleshopping (shopping conducted from home using a computer and a telephone), telebanking, telebroking, and even telebetting. The telecommunications revolution also had its effect on working practices: the teleconference (or telemeeting), an idea dating from the fifties, became more practical, and some office workers began to telecommute, or work from home while communicating with the office and elsewhere via data links (a process also known as teleworking). From Scandinavia in the second half of the decade came the concept of the telecottage: a room in a rural area filled with equipment for teleworking, available for shared use by local residents; working from one of these is known as telecottaging. Alongside all of this new technology, the old technologies continued to give rise to tele- compounds: telemarketing, the marketing of goods or services through unsolicited telephone calls (carried out by telemarketers), became an established selling technique, while television journalism produced many humorous nonce-words such as telepundit and fund-raising extravaganzas such as the Telethon (an old concept, but one which was given a new lease of life in the eighties). France provided the impetus by seeing the smart card as a way of modernising the country's telephone and banking systems with card-based payphones and telebanking and teleshopping facilities which rely on home computers connected to a telephone. New Scientist 11 Feb. 1989, p. 64 The appeal of telecommuting lies in its ability to extend office functionality beyond the confines of the office. UnixWorld Sept. 1989, p. 102 Nynex intends to make the country a high-tech show-place, with fiber-optics and other digital technologies, video teleconferencing and high-speed facsimile services. New York Times 10 Dec. 1989, section 3, p. 9 In Scandinavia around 200 rural 'Telecottages' have been set up for business use in the last five years. Daily Telegraph 11 Apr. 1990, p. 32 ITV Telethon '90:...A mass tap dance..., plus a celebrity tug o' war, ditto It's A Knockout, a giggle of comedians...and a flying visit from the RAF. Guardian 28 May 1990, p. 30 Alan Denbigh, Acre's teleworking adviser, predicts that the telecottage movement will soon begin to grow fast. Daily Telegraph 5 Jan. 1991, Weekend section, p. iii