Etymologically
Log in

montage

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 22:29. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /mɒnˈtɑːʒ/, /ˈmɒn.tɑːʒ/[1]
  • US: /mɑnˈtɑʒ/, /ˈmɑn.tɑʒ/[1]

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

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