Word of the Day

: January 14, 2007

telecommute

verb TEL-ih-kuh-myoot

What It Means

: to work at home by the use of an electronic linkup with a central office

telecommute in Context

When construction on the highway extended her drive to the office by 20 minutes, Margaret made the decision to start telecommuting.

Did You Know?

"Telecommute" derives from the prefix "tele-," a descendant of the Greek "tele," meaning "far off," and the verb "commute," which arose from the Latin "commutare," meaning "to change" or "to exchange." The practice of working at home and interfacing with the office via modem, telephone, or another telecommunications device has only recently become commonplace, but the word "telecommute" has been around since the mid-1970s. Its earliest documented use can be found in a January 1974 article in The Economist that predicted, "As there is no logical reason why the cost of telecommunication should vary with distance, quite a lot of people by the late 1980s will telecommute daily to their London offices while living on a Pacific island if they want to."