Etymologically
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pixel

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 18:04. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /ˈpɪk.səl/, /ˈpɪk.sɛl/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English pix (“pictures”) + element, keeping only the first syllable of the second word.[2][3][4][5][6][7] The Oxford Dictionary of English describes it as an abbreviation of the phrase “picture element”,[8] and Wiktionary notes that it is often taken as a blend of picture and element.[1] The first part is an alteration of “pics”, the plural of pic, short for “picture”.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Each of the tiny areas that make up an image: the OED's first record is from 1965, in a paper by F. C. Billingsley in the proceedings of the Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers,[2][1] where each sample of an image was defined as "a picture element or pixel".[1] Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date it to 1969.[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart and Etymonline describe the word as coined for the elements of a television image;[9][3] the OED's definition covers the image on a television or computer screen and the individual elements of an image sensor,[2] and Merriam-Webster also has a sense for the detecting elements of a charge-coupled device.[5] Wiktionary records a verb pixel, to make computer graphics by editing single pixels, quoted from 2006.[1]

Timeline

  • 1965 – a picture element, in Billingsley's paper.[2][1]
  • 1969 – the elements of a television image (Etymonline, Barnhart, Merriam-Webster).[3][4][5]
  • 2006 – verb, to draw graphics pixel by pixel.[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Any of the many tiny elements of uniform colour and brightness that together make up an image on a television or computer screen: The old monitor showed every pixel of the icon.
  2. Any of the light-detecting elements of a charge-coupled device or other image sensor.

Verb

  1. To make computer graphics by editing single pixels.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology