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wire recorder

wire recorder

1 9.8
An old machine that saves sound on thin metal wire and plays it back
  • noun
  • /ˈwaɪər rɪˈkoʊrdər/
  • Archaic
translation icon : grabadora de alambre
  • He was good in math and had shortwave radios and wire recorders from the Second World War.

Examples

  • This is a little like the performance of a wire recorder or a strip of cinematographic film on which are registered all those things of which the individual was once aware—the things he selected for his attention in that interval of time....

    Academic text (1990)
  • A wire recorder.

  • Get the wire recorder out of the car, and don't leave evidence laying around like that.

  • This is a Minafon, miniature wire recorder.

  • (My first recorder was a German wire recorder.)

    Blog text (23)
  • He loved collecting vintage technology, and his favorite was a wire recorder from the 1950s.

  • After discovering his grandfather's wire recorder, he enjoyed listening to old family recordings.

  • In the early days of audio recording, a wire recorder was a common device used by musicians.

Synonyms

tape recorder
vswire recorder
  • Archaic
69 2.4

A machine that records and plays sound on tape

records audio by running thin steel wire rather than tape
tape machine
vswire recorder
  • Archaic
4 3.2

A device that records or plays sound on magnetic tape

uses thin steel wire as the recording medium instead of tape
cassette recorder
vswire recorder
  • Archaic
3 2.7

A small machine that records and plays sound on cassette tapes

uses thin steel wire rather than cassette tapes to store sound
cassette deck
vswire recorder
  • Archaic
1 4.6

A device that plays and records sound on cassette tapes

records by using thin steel wire instead of cassette tape
magnetic recorder
vswire recorder
  • Specialized
4.0

A device that uses magnetic tape or disk to save sound, pictures and data

records audio specifically by passing thin steel wire under a head
magnetoscope
vswire recorder
  • Archaic
9.9

A machine for recording and playing video or audio on tape

focuses on audio made with thin steel wire not tape or video

Surface Forms

wire recorder singular

Morphology

wire + recorder

The compound 'wire recorder' is directly compositional: it denotes a recorder that uses wire as its recording medium. A B1 learner who knows 'wire' and 'recorder' can reasonably infer this meaning because noun+noun instrument/medium constructions are common and follow standard, cross-linguistic patterns.

Etymology

Wire recorder comes from how the machine worked: it was an early recorder that used a thin steel wire to store and replay sounds. Because the sound was kept on the wire, the name now means a device that 'records and plays back sound'.