I notice "do you copy that?" is used in movies to ask for confirmation in telephone/interphone conversation.
I only know copy means make things duplicated, so why use it in "do you copy that"? Is there a history about it?
This comes from military, amateur and CB radio communication
"Do you copy?" or "Copy that!" is likely from when a message had to be written down to be shown to a superior officer
This phrase originated with Morse Code. You can make a
The phrase undoubtedly came into popular use from Amateur (ham) Radio users who moved into CB radio. Amateur Radio users discuss copying traffic as part of their hobby. http://www.arrl.org/appendix-b-nts-methods-and-practices-guidelines
Amateur radio has a list of short-hand symbols that are used to quickly transfer information through Morse Code (and later were used over-the-air). One of the most popular is QSL which means either
I have no idea but it occurred to me that "Copy" sounds a lot like "Capiche" which means understand in Italian. I thought perhaps it could have come from that.
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