Portable communications devices refer to hand-held or wearable devices. For example, the Walkie Talkie

Walkie-talkie

A walkie-talkie is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald L. Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, and engineering teams at Motorola...

 is a device that is hand-held when in use, and wearable when not in use. Portable telephones (cellular telephones) are also carried, or worn, on a belt, or in a pocket. A mevice (n./'mee-vyhs/) is a personal, wireless electronic device with customizable communications, applications and entertainment capabilities.

More recently, portable devices have also become usable when worn. For example, most walkie talkies come with a VOX

Vox

Vox is Latin for Voice. It may refer to:* Vocals, a common abbreviation, especially in pro audio-Music:* "Vox" , a song by Sarah McLachlan* Vox Records, an American record label* Vox Records , a German record label...

 (Voice Operated Xmit) capability so that they will work hands-free, when used with a wearable microphone. Many telephones such as the Motorola

Motorola

Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...

 Star Tac also feature an earpiece that allows the phone to be worn and used hands-free. The Star Tac was the first wearable cellular telephone, in the sense that it was the first that could be used while being worn.

The word portable derives from the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 word porter ("to wear", as in "pret a porter" = "ready to wear", but also "to carry").

Portable computer

Portable computer

A portable computer is a computer that is designed to be moved from one place to another and includes a display and keyboard. Portable computers, by their nature, are generally microcomputers. Portable computers, because of their size, are also commonly known as 'Lunchbox' or 'Luggable' computers...

s are computers that can be hand-held, used on a lap, or worn in a pocket, belt, or the like, such as Personal digital assistant

Personal digital assistant

A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...

s (PDAs). PDAs are almost always worn (pocket or belt) when not in use, but more recently there has been a trend to having them be usable when worn (e.g. with eyeglass-based displays as well as electric seeing aids such as eyetap

Eyetap

An EyeTap is a device that is worn in front of the eye that acts as a camera to record the scene available to the eye as well as a display to superimpose a computer-generated imagery on the original scene available to the eye....

 devices).

The Portable class of device exists at one end of a continuum:

• Portable: hand-held or wearable;
• Mobile: vehicular mounted (e.g. an automobile radiotelephone);
• Base station or desktop units: building-mounted.

According to the Oxford American Dictionary, portable is from the Old French 'portable,' which is from the Late Latin

Late Latin

Late Latin is the scholarly name for the written Latin of Late Antiquity. The English dictionary definition of Late Latin dates this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD extending in Spain to the 7th. This somewhat ambiguously defined period fits between Classical Latin and Medieval Latin...

'portabilis,' which in turn is from the Latin 'portare.'