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studio

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 02:20. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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

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