A fob is a small, thin piece of metal or plastic that is clipped to the clothing and worn as a key ring. It typically has a small button on one side to allow you to turn it into a watch. A dongle, on the other hand, is an electronic device that plugs into an electrical outlet and allows you to control your devices using your smartphone or computer.
Your office mate says the new device your company issued is a fob, and you say it’s a dongle. Before things come to fisticuffs in front of the water cooler, let’s investigate.
Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.
The Question
SuperUser reader Hogan has a simple but pressing question:
What is the difference? Or, as Humpty Dumpty said in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean–neither more nor less.”
The Answer
SuperUser contributor Bill Weaver digs right into the question:
In other words, both a fob and a dongle can interact with other hardware (be that hardware in your car or your computer), but only dongles are directly attached to the machine.
As words, fob has been around for centuries while dongle is a more recently made-up word to describe a hardware key. Fob is interesting in that it meant a small pocket, while now we put fobs in pockets with our keys. You can also have a keyring with a fob and a dongle on it, the former to open your car and the latter to open Maya.
Definitions and Links
fob (from Online Etymology Dictionary) n. 1653, “small pocket for valuables,” probably related to Low Ger. fobke “pocket,” High Ger. fuppe “pocket.” Meaning “chain attached to a watch carried in the fob” is from 1885. v. “to cheat,” 1583, from obsolete noun fobbe “cheat, trickster” (1393), perhaps from O.Fr. forbe “cheat.” Alternative etymology holds that the word is perhaps related to Ger. foppen “to jeer at, make a fool of” (see fop); or from Ger. fuppen, einfuppen to pocket stealthily, which would connect it to fob (n.). To fob (someone) off is first recorded 1597.
fob off (from Yahoo Education) v. To dispose of (goods) by fraud or deception; palm off: fobbed off the zircon as a diamond.
dongle (from Wordnik) n. noun A hardware device that serves as copy protection for certain software by rendering the software inoperable when the device is not plugged into a printer port.
Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.
