John Artman: Hello and welcome to this week’s Round Table’s Word of the Week. I’m John Artman.

Zhou Heyang: 我是赫扬。欢迎来到这周的英语词汇小百科板块。这周我们来聊一聊Wifi这个词。

John: The term “Wi-Fi” actually was commercially used at least as early as August, 2000 and was actually coined by brand consulting firm called Interbrand Corporation.

ZHY: 有人说Wi-Fi是Wireless Fidelity的简称。请问这是事实吗？

John: No, actually, it’s not true. Interbrand Corporation was hired by the Wi-Fi Alliance because they needed a name that sounded better than the “IEEE 802.11b direct sequence.” And so what they did was they made a play on words. They said was that “Wi-Fi” is the standard for wireless fidelity. The term right now, Wi-Fi, has nothing whatsoever to do with fidelity.

ZHY: Okay, thanks for that explanation. But why is it called “Wi-Fi” and not “weefee?”

John: So, wireless fidelity. Again, it’s a play on the word “hifi” and then “Wi-Fi.”

ZHY: I guess you need to know the origin to understand how to pronounce it. 在使用Wi-Fi的时候，常常我们会提到“热点”这个词。我们应该怎么说呢？

John: Right, and so, in English that’s “hotspot.” Basically, it’s just a wireless ess point that usually you use a router to connect to. And so, I think that many of our listeners also understand that a router is just a piece of equipment where you plug it in to the Internet and a wireless router will broadcast a Wi-Fi signal that you can use to connect to your other devices, too.

ZHY: John, 你说的是路由器吧。如果要是来使用移动设备共享互联网连接，这个要怎么说呢？

John: In English, we call this “tethering.” The idea is is that you have a 3G or 4G enabled device, that can be a smartphone or a tablet with a 3G connection, and you can turn on something called “tethering.” That basically just turns your mobile device into a wireless hotspot.

That’s all the time we have, unfortunately, for this week’s Word of the Week. Thank you so much for joining us and don’t forget to tune in next time.