Phonograph

The phonograph, or gramophone, was the most common device for playing recorded sound from the 1870s through the 1980s.

British and American language usage differences

In British English "gramophone" came to refer to any sound reproducing machine using disc records, as disc records were popularized in the UK by the Gramophone Company. The term "phonograph" is usually restricted to devices playing cylinder records. The term "gramophone" would generally be taken to refer to a wind-up machine, and from the 1960's onwards the more common term would be "record player" or "stereo" for a complete system (most systems were stereophonic by the mid-1960's), and "turntable" for an individual component of a system that played not only records but included other sources.

Related Topics:
British English - Gramophone Company - Stereophonic

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In American English, "phonograph" was the most common generic term for any early sound reproducing machine. Berliner's Gramophone was considered a type of phonograph. "Gramophone" was a brand name, and as such in the same category as "Victrola," "Zon-o-phone," "Graphophone" and "Graphonola" referring to specific brands of sound reproducing machines.

Related Topics:
American English - Brand name - Victrola - Zon-o-phone

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The brand "Gramophone" was not used in the USA after 1901, and the word fell out of use there. In contemporary American usage "phonograph" most usually refers to disc record machines or turntables, the most common type of analogue recording from the 1910s on. The word has survived in America based on its nickname form, "Grammy", in the Grammy Awards.

Related Topics:
1901 - Grammy Award

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Strictly speaking, the gramophone is the machine reproducing sound from an engraved archive, whereas a phonograph is a machine that captures sound onto an engraved archive, i.e. a lathe.

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