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Etymology and origin of the English word pic

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1884

Pronunciation

Etymology

It is a colloquial shortening of picture.[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A picture, a photograph: by 1884.[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

A motion picture, a film, is from 1936.[2][5] The more colloquial piccy is from 1889.[2]

Timeline

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (informal) A photograph or picture.
  2. (informal) A cinema film.

Word family

  • biopic

Usage notes

Several other words are spelled pic: an obsolete pic, a peak, as in the Pic of Tenerife (from French or Spanish pico);[5][4] pic, a former Levantine measure of length (from Turkish);[4] and pic, a picador or his lance (from Spanish pica), from the early 20th century.[4][3]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
Cite this entry

“Pic.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/pic. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·