Using smart phone as a hot spot

MrWizard wrote:
And nobody ever says tether when talking about their tablet or notebook at the Starbucks or the campground

True, but word meanings do change over time, usually to become obfuscated.

Tetherball is where a ball is physically tied to a pole, so tethering a computer would obviously mean a cord is involved. I've never used 'tether' to mean wireless either, and I don't hear anyone say that about wifi. A wireless mouse is not tethered to my computer.

Another one is 'flat screen' TV. When the LCDs first came out, the industry called them flat panel TVs, because flat screen was already available in a CRT. And since CRTs had never been flat, that was an apt description. LCD TVs are (were) by definition flat, so it's kinda redundant to call them 'flat screen'.