Cable
Middle English: from an Anglo-Norman French variant of Old French chable, from late Latin capulum ‘halter’.
wiktionary
Recorded since c.1205 as Middle English cable, from Old Northern French cable, from Late Latin capulum(“lasso, rope, halter”), from Latin capiō(“to take, seize”). Use of the term "cable" to refer to the USD/GBP exchange rate originated in the mid-19th century, when the exchange rate began to be transmitted across the Atlantic by a submarine communications cable.
etymonline
cable (n.)
c. 1200, "large, strong rope or chain used on a ship," from Old North French cable, from Medieval Latin capulum "lasso, rope, halter for cattle," from Latin capere "to take, seize," from PIE root *kap- "to grasp."
Technically, in nautical use, a rope 10 or more inches around, to hold the ship when at anchor; in non-nautical use, a rope of wire (not hemp or fiber). Given a new range of senses in 19c. in telegraphy (1850s), traction-railroads (1880s), etc. Meaning "message received by telegraphic cable" is from 1883, short for cable message (1870), cablegram (1868), cable dispatch (1864). Cable television first attested 1963; shortened form cable in this sense is from 1970.
Speed, speed the Cable; let it run,
A loving girdle round the earth,
Till all the nations 'neath the sun
Shall be as brothers at one hearth;
[T. Buchanan Read, "The Cable," 1858]
cable (v.)
c. 1500, "to tie up with cables," from cable (n.). As "to transmit by telegraph cable," 1868. Related: Cabled; cabling.
We have done our part lately to bring into use the verb cabled, as applied to a message over the Atlantic cable. It is proper to say "it has been cabled," instead of "it has been telegraphed over the Atlantic cable." [The Mechanics Magazine, London, Sept. 11, 1868]
But other British sources list it as an Americanism.
