When you have recorded your message …

When you have recorded your message just hang up.

Hang up – now that is a very old phrase.  Right from the very beginnings of telephone usage.  One of the earliest styles of telephone is the candlestick variety where the mouthpiece is at the top of the stick, the earpiece is connected to the stick by a cord and, when not in use, the earpiece will hang on a little cradle or hook.  The weight of the earpiece on the cradle “closes” the connection to the telephone network, effectively ending the conversation.

This old-fashioned style of telephone has vanished forever (there are pictures all over the place though) but the phrase – “hang up” - is still in use all over the world today.  By the sound of it, nobody has come up with a better phrase to end a conversation and cut the connection between the two parties.  “Hang up”, there you are: accurate, succinct and precise; can you think of a better way of putting it? 

Nowadays, you slide your finger across the screen of your mobile telephone onto a red circle, or is it that you slide your finger from the red circle to somewhere else on the screen?  I have not the faintest idea.

Everybody uses the phrase: “Hang up”.  How many people know where it comes from?  Apart from us, of course; why not pass this vital knowledge on to anybody who might appreciate it?

“Please, don’t hang up, I must speak to you, it is so important, don’t hang up!  Don’t hang up!  Hello, hello, Operator, can you re-connect me, please?  Operator?  Operator?  Don’t hang up …”