montage

Etymology

It is borrowed from French montage (“a mounting; assembling”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from monter (“to mount”) and -age,^[6][7][8][9] the verb being Old French monter (“to go up, ascend”),^[2][3] from Vulgar Latin *montō, from Latin mōns (“mountain”).^[4][3] The OED notes that French used montage for film editing from 1914, after an isolated record in the sense "climbing" (1604) and its use for assembling the parts of a mechanism (1765).^[8] It is related to the verb mount.^[2][3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The combination of several film shots into a composite sequence: 1929, in Montagu's translation of Pudovkin's On Film Technique,^[2][3][6] 1930 in the OED, which first finds it in an article by H. A. Potamkin.^[8] Dictionary.com dates it to 1920–25.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the word was first a term of cinematography.^[3] From film editing it spread in the 1930s to a composite picture made by combining several photographs or other images (1938), and then to any mixture or medley of elements, a pastiche (1934, in C. Lambert's Music Ho!).^[8][5] Merriam-Webster also records the specific style of film editing in which contrasting shots are set side by side to suggest an idea.^[6] The verb montage is dated 1944 by Merriam-Webster and 1979 by the OED.^[6][8]

Timeline

• 1929 – the selection and combination of film shots into a sequence.^[2][6][3] The OED's first record is from 1930.^[8]
• 1934 – a mixture or medley of various elements.^[8]
• 1938 – a composite picture made from several pictures.^[8]
• 1944 – verb, to combine into a montage.^[6] The OED's first record of the verb is from 1979.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. In film and television, the editing together of separate shots into a continuous sequence, or a rapidly cut sequence made in this way: The film opens with a montage of city streets at dawn.^[11][8][5]
2. The technique of making a composite picture by combining or superimposing several pictures, or a picture made in this way; a photomontage.^[11][6][8]
3. A mixture of different elements; a medley or pastiche.^[8][5][6]
4. A style of film editing in which contrasting shots are juxtaposed to suggest an idea.^[6][11]

Verb

1. To combine into a montage, or to show in a montage.^[6][8]

Word family

• photomontage

Related words

• mount

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins