screenplay

Etymology

It is formed from English screen + play,^[2][3][4] with screen in its cinema sense.^[3] That sense, a flat surface on which images are projected, goes back to 1810 and the magic lantern, and the word stood for the cinema world as a whole from 1914.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A film: 1913, in the Financial Times, usually written as two words, screen play; this sense is now rare.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The sense "script from which a film is made" is dated 1916 by Etymonline and Merriam-Webster,^[3][6] and 1920, in the North American Review, by the OED,^[2][5] which defines it as a script for a film or television programme with the acting directions and notes on sets and camera positions.^[2] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1915–20.^[4] The related screenwriter is dated 1913 by the OED and 1921 by Etymonline.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1913 – screen play, a film.^[2]
• 1916 – the script of a film.^[3][6]
• 1920 – the same sense in the OED.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The script of a film or television programme, with the dialogue and directions for the acting, the scenes and the camera: She adapted the novel into a screenplay.^{[7][6][2][8][9]}

Related words

• screenwriter
• screen
• play
• script

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Webster's New World College Dictionary (2014), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt