10-4

English

Alternative forms

• ten-four

Etymology

From the 1940 ten-codes devised by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO), which in turn was based on an unnamed standard invented by Charles "Charlie" Hopper for the Illinois District 10 State Police in 1937 that subsequently spread to the rest of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Minnesota and was documented by APCO in 1939. The syllable "ten" was originally chosen to help novice operators fill an appropriate amount of time so that the dynamotor used to power 1930s and 1940s radio transmitters could spin up to full power before the semantically meaningful second number was transmitted. These second numbers were assigned with the aim that more useful common messages would be given smaller numbers, and similar messages would be roughly grouped into "brackets". The message "acknowledged" was expected to be extremely common and useful, and so was mapped to "four", the first available number after the three codes used to report and manage connection quality, which the committee gave highest priority.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌtɛnˈfɔː(ɹ)/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)

Interjection

10-4

1. (CB slang) Affirmative.

   “Are you pulling in at the next truckstop?” “That's a big 10-4 on that.”

   • 1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall:

     By golly, it's clean clear to Flag Town, c'mon
     Yeah, that's a big 10-4 there, Pig Pen.

2. Message received, understood, acknowledged.

   Ten-four, good buddy.

   • 2023 July 21, Nintendo EPD, Pikmin 4, Nintendo, level/area: Rescue Command Post:

     Dingo: 'Look, that's just what my gut is telling me, OK?! Yon! Cure this one for me tomorrow!' / Yonny: 'Copy that, roger, ten-four, and so on. I'll begin preparing the medicine right away.'

See also

• 10-20
• CB radio