camera

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkæm.rə/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin camera (“vault, arched chamber”),^[2][3][4] in Late Latin “chamber, room”,^[5][3] from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamárā, “anything with an arched cover, a vaulted chamber”),^[2][6][3] which is of uncertain origin;^[2] Barnhart relates it to Latin camur “curved” and Avestan kamarā “girdle”, from Proto-Indo-European *kam-er- (“to arch, bend”).^[3] It is a doublet of chamber.^[2][3] Old Church Slavonic komora, Lithuanian kamara and Old Irish camra are also borrowings from Latin.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An arched roof or vaulted room: 1708,^[2][3] a Latin sense given in dictionaries but probably never in real use, according to the OED.^[7] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1633.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In reference to Italy and Spain a camera was a council or legislative chamber, from 1712;^[7][3][8] the Latin sense survives in the name of the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford.^[9][3] The word was chiefly a conscious Latinism until photography made it popular.^[9] From the early 18th century it was short for Modern Latin camera obscura, “dark chamber”, a box with a lens projecting images of outside objects (1668 in the OED),^[2][7] and the modern photographic camera, a development of it, dates from about 1840.^[2][7][3] It was extended to the television camera in 1928.^[2][7] Camera-shy is from 1890 and cameraman from 1908.^[2] The legal phrase in camera, “in a judge's private chambers”, is from the late 19th century.^[8]

Timeline

• 1633 – first known use, in Merriam-Webster.^[5]
• 1668 – camera obscura.^[7]
• 1708 – a vaulted room.^[2][3]
• 1712 – a council chamber in Italy or Spain.^[7][3]
• 1840 – a photographic camera.^[7][3]
• late 19th century – in camera.^[8]
• 1890 – camera-shy.^[2]
• 1928 – a television camera.^[7][2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A device for taking photographs or recording moving images, with a lens through which light reaches a film or electronic sensor.
2. The part of a television or video system that converts images into electrical signals.
3. in camera: In private, especially in a judge's chambers rather than in open court.
4. The treasury department of the papal curia.

Word family

• camcorder
• camera-ready
• camera-shy
• cameraman
• cameraperson
• camerawoman
• off-camera
• on-camera

Related words

• cameral
• chamber
• camera obscura
• comrade
• camaraderie
• bicameral

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press