studio

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈstjuː.di.əʊ/, US /ˈstuː.di.oʊ/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian studio (“room for study; study”),^[2][3][4] from Latin studium (“eagerness, application, study”),^[2][3][5] the source also of study.^[2][3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The workroom of a painter or sculptor: 1819,^[2][3][7] usually one with windows that let in light from the sky.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was later extended to a photographer's rooms.^[2][8] With the cinema it came to mean a room where films are shot, by 1911,^[2][3][8] and then the offices and buildings of a film-making company and the companies themselves.^[2] It passed to radio broadcasting in 1922,^[2][3][8] to recording rooms for gramophone records by 1928,^[8] and to television by 1938.^[2] The studio apartment is American, attested by 1903,^[2][8] and studio alone for a one-room flat is from 1942.^[8]

Timeline

• 1819 – an artist's workroom.^[2][3][7]
• 1903 – studio apartment.^[2][8]
• 1911 – a film studio.^[2][3][8]
• 1922 – a broadcasting studio.^[2][3][8]
• 1928 – a recording studio.^[8]
• 1938 – a television studio.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The workroom of an artist, such as a painter, sculptor or photographer.
2. A place where an art, such as dance or music, is taught or studied.
3. A room or building where films, or radio or television programmes, are produced.
4. A room where music and other sound recordings are made.
5. A company that makes films.
6. A one-room apartment, also called a studio apartment or studio flat.

Word family

• studio apartment

Related words

• study
• student
• studious
• etude

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press