Gadget

Gadget (English for apparatus, gadget or frills ) denotes a technical tool or device with so far unknown function and / or special design. It is traditionally small and portable and designed to take away. Plays a major role, the fun factor of a gadget: Devices which are defined as a gadget, are often commuters between meaningful functionality and playfulness. The Duden gadget defined as a "small, refined technical object ". Often gadgets are also associated with gifts.

Examples are electronic mobile and handheld devices such as smartphones, MP3 players, netbooks, digital cameras, mobile gaming consoles and tablet PCs, as well as electrical or mechanical devices such as Walkman or Rubik's Cube. Gadgets often contain functions that were previously so not found in any technical device. Likewise, occasionally smaller applications such as widgets, called a portmanteau of window and gadget so.

Etymology

The origin of the word "gadget" is controversial, it can be traced back to the 19th century, however. According to the Oxford English Dictionary since the 1850s there is an anecdotal indication for the use of the word gadget for a technical device whose name you can not remember. The oldest surviving written reference dates back to 1886, appeared in Robert Brown's book Spunyarn and Spindrift, A sailor boy's log of a voyage out and home in a China tea - clipper, where sailors are cited who think their equipment. After the British etymologist Michael Quinion British called in the late 19th century things gadgets, if they could think of no more appropriate term, equivalent to the German " thingy " or the Silesian " Wihajster " (derived from what is his name ). According to him, a borrowing from other languages ​​is likely, for example, from the French dialect term " gagée " for tools. The Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language suspected the origin in the French gâchette, the name for the Schnapphahn a lock, latch or lock arms. Another theory is that the term was coined by the French company Gaget, Gauthier & Cie, which was responsible for driving the construction of the Statue of Liberty, as this anfertigte a small model of the statue and called it after their company.

History of development

A high level of awareness was the principle of the gadget - if not necessarily the name itself - through animated comic book series, television series and action comedies, mostly from the espionage / spy movie genre: Intelligent miniature devices with imaginative functions were at first mainly in the hands numerous superheroes from Inspector Gadget to James Bond, but nowadays also in hit U.S. series formats such as the Big Bang Theory or the IT Crowd, in which the protagonists use, mostly geeks or nerds, numerous gadgets.

Meanwhile gadgets have become an important branch of the digital industry. Instead of Q ( from the James Bond franchise ) or gadget Hackwrench ( from the Disney animated series Chip ' n Dale Rescue Rangers; German: Trixi from Chip and Dale - The Knights of the law ), there are now manufacturers in the consumer goods industry with a focus on on design as Apple or Sony, but also many new and unknown companies that invest in the design of gadgets. Many of these firms are based in East Asian countries and export their goods partly directly through Internet auction houses such as eBay. Currently, these so-called China Gadgets delight, especially in the German-speaking area of ​​increasing popularity, as it often lower prices made ​​possible by the cutting out middlemen. Especially in Germany there are a number of online shops that specialize specifically in the distribution of gadgets.

These gadgets are also available at electronics stores in part, but also through magazines such as Mickey Mouse or Yps settled. Here, the limit from the gadget to the gimmick is fluid. The range of gadgets is as varied as the users of these objects. Thus, there are gadgets for small children, such as periscopes, on office supplies, such as aufwärmbare via USB coffee cups, to applications for the nerd and geek area.

The most famous gadget since 2007 is the iPhone. The U.S. magazine Time chose the iPhone the " Invention of the Year 2007".

With the advent of graphical user interfaces first the controls (input fields, buttons, scroll bars, etc ) are collectively referred to as gadgets. Meanwhile, the term of the art word widget (window gadget ) was displaced. The similarity to the English word Midget ( Dwarf ) is intended here.

Trivia

The first atomic bomb was from their testers, the nickname the gadget.