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movie

Etymology and origin of the English word movie

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1912
Ultimate origin
English (moving picture)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈmuː.vi/[1]

Etymology

It is a shortened and altered form of moving picture,[2][3][4] with the suffix -ie.[3][5][6] Moving picture in the cinematographic sense is from 1896.[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A motion picture: 1912, American English,[3][4][7] though social workers apparently used it as early as 1908.[3][4] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1909.[5]

Semantic evolution

The movies, a motion-picture show, is first recorded in 1914,[3] and the adjective use, as in movie star, from 1913.[4][3] A cinema building is a movie in North American use from 1911.[8][6] Another early name for a film was photoplay.[4]

Timeline

  • 1896 – moving picture.[4][3]
  • 1912 – movie.[3][4][7]
  • 1913 – movie star; adjective use.[4]
  • 1914 – the movies.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A motion picture; a film.
  2. (chiefly US) A cinema.
  3. the movies: a showing of a film; the film industry.

Word family

  • B-movie
  • moviedom
  • moviegoer
  • moviegoing
  • movieland
  • moviemaker
  • Moviola
  • movie house
  • move
  • cinema
  • film
  • flick

Usage notes

The SOED marks movie as originally American,[6] and in British use film and cinema were long the usual words.[6]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
Cite this entry

“Movie.” Etymologically, 15 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/movie. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·