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documentary

Etymology and origin of the English word documentary

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1802

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˌdɒk.jəˈmen.tər.i/, US /ˌdɑː.kjəˈmen.t̬ɚ.i/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from document and the suffix -ary;[2][3][4] the film sense was probably borrowed from French film documentaire.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or consisting in documents: 1802–12 in the writings of Jeremy Bentham;[2][5] Etymonline dates it to 1788.[3]

Semantic evolution

Affording evidence is a rare sense from 1843, and relating to teaching or instruction another, from 1871.[5] Factual and realistic, of a film or book based on real events, is from 1926 in the OED,[5] by 1921 in Etymonline, originally of film, after French film documentaire (by 1919).[3] Barnhart dates the English film senses to 1930–32, after French film documentaire (1924) and the noun documentaire (1929).[2] The noun, short for documentary film, is attested by 1935,[3][4] and has spread to radio and television programmes.[6][7]

Timeline

  • 1802–12 – consisting of documents, in Bentham.[2][5]
  • 1843 – evidential.[5]
  • 1926 – factual, of a film.[5]
  • 1935 – the noun, a documentary film.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Consisting of, based on or relating to documents: documentary evidence.
  2. Presenting facts objectively, without fictional additions.

Noun

  1. A film or radio or television programme presenting facts about a subject, often with real footage and interviews.

Word family

  • documentarily
  • undocumentary
  • predocumentary
  • nondocumentary
  • docudrama
  • documentarian
  • documentarist
  • docutainment

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Documentary.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/documentary. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·