Etymology: < Middle French, French mobile (c1448 in mobile premier in astronomy; 1516 in premier mobile in this sense, and subsequently in extended senses ‘that which provides an impulsion, movement’ (1677), ‘that which incites a person to act’ (1682; 1740 as simplex in this sense); 1639 as simplex in sense 2; 1662 in sense ‘person exercizing the principal influence’; 1865 in sense ‘impulsive, affective tendency’) or its etymon post-classical Latin mobile (in primum mobile primum mobile n.), use as noun of classical Latin mōbile , neuter of mōbilis mobile adj.¹ N.E.D. (1907) gives only the pronunciation (mō^u·bil) /ˈməʊbɪl/, but adds a note that ‘later examples..were perhaps intended by the writers for the Latin mōbile (in English pronunciation mō^u·bili [i.e. /ˈməʊbɪliː/])’. In any given instance it is impossible to be sure whether a naturalized pronunciation (on which see the note s.v. mobile adj.¹) or a non-naturalized pronunciation is intended. An early pronunciation /məʊˈbiːl/ is suggested by the rhyme in quot. 1645 at sense 1.

Etymology: Short for mobile vulgus n. or its etymon classical Latin mōbile vulgus. Compare slightly later mob n.², vulgus n.¹ N.E.D. (1907) gives the non-naturalized pronunciation (mō^u·bili) /ˈməʊbɪliː/; compare the note s.v. mobile n.¹

Etymology: < French Mobile (1699), Mowill (1758: see note below), and various other forms apparently rendering Spanish Mauvila (name of a fort and Indian settlement conquered by Spanish soldiers under Hernando de Soto, 1540), presumably ultimately < an ethnonym or place name in the Mobile language. The fort was some distance from the later town of Mobile, Alabama.On the development of the ethnonym in French, compare the following quotation, which was probably the source of quots. 1760 at sense B. 1 and 1798 at sense A. 1:1758 A. S. Le Page du Pratz Histoire de la Louisiane II. xvi. 214 Le vrai nom de cette Nation est Mowill; de ce mot les Français ont fait Mobile, ensuite ils ont nommé Mobile la Riviere & la Baye, Mobiliens les Naturels de cette Nation, [etc.].

Etymology: < French mobile mobile n.¹ (1931 in sense 1a). Compare stabile n.The French noun was apparently first used in this sense by Marcel Duchamp, French artist (1887–1968), to denote the moving abstract constructions of Alexander Calder, U.S. sculptor and painter (1898–1976):1966 A. Calder Autobiogr. with Pictures 126 I asked him [sc. Duchamp] what sort of name I could give these things and he at once produced ‘Mobile’. In addition to something that moves, in French it also means motive. The same word was earlier borrowed as mobile n.¹; the present entry shows later reborrowing. O.E.D. Suppl. (1976) interprets this word as derived < mobile adj.¹, and gives no explanation of the variant pronunciation (mō^u·bīl) /ˈməʊbiːl/ which it reports at sense 1a. This non-naturalized variant had almost entirely fallen out of use in British English by the end of the 20th cent.

Etymology: < mobile adj.¹

Etymology: < Middle French, French mobile movable (1377), changeable, variable (c1448), inconstant, unstable (c1510), animated by constant movement (1749) < classical Latin mōbilis capable of being moved, movable, changeable, lively, quick < the base of movēre move v. + -bilis -ble suffix. Only sporadically recorded before late 18th cent. Compare earlier moble adj., mobility n.¹Specific senses. With sense 1d, compare specific use of classical Latin mōbilis with reference to troops; compare also similar use of the French mobile, in e.g. troupes mobiles (1835), colonne mobile (1823), gendarmerie mobile (1877), garde mobile (1829), and related uses as feminine noun (1830; short for garde mobile) and as masculine noun (‘soldier of the garde mobile’, 1848). Pronunciation. N.E.D. (1907) gives the pronunciation (mō^u·bil) /ˈməʊbɪl/. This agrees with the majority of late 19th-cent. dictionaries, but the pronunciation clearly varied widely: Cent. Dict. (1890) gives the variant /ˈmɔbɪl/, while D. Jones Eng. Pronouncing Dict. (1917), alongside /ˈməʊbiːl/ and /ˈməʊbɪl/, recommends /ˈməʊbaɪl/ as its preferred variant. By the end of the 20th cent. this variant, apparently originally a spelling-pronunciation, had become universal in British English, while North American English continued to show variation.