Word of the Day

: April 9, 2009

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

Marie recently installed a high-speed computer line in her home so she could telecommute two days a week.

Did You Know?

"Telecommute" derives from the prefix "tele-," a descendant of the Greek word "tēle," meaning "far off," and the verb "commute," which arose from Latin "commutare," meaning "to change" or "to exchange." The practice of working at home and interfacing with the office electronically 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."