film

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fɪlm/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English filme, inherited from Old English filmen (“membrane, thin skin, foreskin”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-West Germanic *filminjan,^[2][4] extended from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“animal hide”),^[2] the source of Old English fell (“hide”).^[2][5][6] It is related to Old Frisian filmene (“skin”).^[3][2] Etymonline and Barnhart trace it to Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“skin, hide”), the source also of Greek πέλμα (pélma, “sole of the foot”) and Latin pellis (“skin”).^[2][3][7] It is related to fell, “hide”, and pelt.^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A membrane, animal or vegetable: Old English filmen, about 1000;^[9][3] Middle English vilm is recorded before 1400.^[3]

Semantic evolution

A thin coating of something is from 1577^[9] or the 1570s,^[2] and a very thin layer of any material from 1653.^[9] A morbid growth on the eye is from 1601.^[9] In photography the word was extended by 1845 to the coating of chemical gel on photographic plates,^[2][9] and by 1895 to the coating with its paper or celluloid backing.^[2] From this came “a motion picture” in 1905,^[2][9] and filmmaking as an art in 1920.^[2][9] The AHD notes that the OED fascicle for film, published in 1896, did not yet have the sense “motion picture”.^[10] The verb meant “to cover with a film” from 1602,^[9][11] and “to make a movie of” from 1899.^[2][9]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English filmen, a membrane.^[9]
• 1577 – a thin coating.^[9]
• 1601 – a growth on the eye.^[9]
• 1602 – verb, to cover with a film.^[9]
• 1845 – photographic film.^[2][9]
• 1899 – verb, to make a movie of.^[2][9]
• 1905 – a motion picture.^[2][9]
• 1920 – film as an art form.^[2][9]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A thin skin, membrane or coating.
2. A thin, flexible, transparent sheet, as of plastic for wrapping.
3. A thin strip coated with a light-sensitive emulsion, used in photography.
4. A motion picture; films, or the film industry, collectively.

Verb

1. To cover, or become covered, with a film.
2. To make a film of; to shoot scenes for a film.

Word family

• filmless
• filmable
• filmlike
• refilm

Related words

• filmy
• fell
• pelt
• pellicle
• microfilm

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 n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster