video

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈvɪd.i.əʊ/, US /ˈvɪd.i.oʊ/^[1]

Etymology

It was coined from Latin videō (“I see”),^[2][3][4] the first-person singular present of vidēre (“to see”),^[2][4] as a visual counterpart to audio.^[2][5][6] Barnhart suggests its adoption was helped by the ending of radio.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, relating to the transmission or reception of television images: 1935.^[3][2][7]

Semantic evolution

As a noun it meant “the picture shown on a television screen” by 1937,^[2][8][7] and in American colloquial use “television as a medium” from 1939^[9] or 1941.^[8] When videotape arrived (the word is from 1953),^[3] video came to mean a recording itself, by 1968.^[2][8] The videocassette is from 1971,^[3] and the verb “to make a video recording of” is dated 1971 by the OED^[8] and 1972 by Etymonline.^[2] Video game is attested by 1972.^[2] In 1937 one engineering magazine already spoke of “video transmission” as the moderns' name for television.^[2]

Timeline

• 1935 – adjective, of television images.^[3][2]
• 1937 – noun, the television picture.^[2][8]
• 1939 – television as a medium (US).^[9]
• 1953 – videotape.^[3]
• 1958 – a video recorder.^[8]
• 1968 – a video recording.^[2][8]
• 1971 – videocassette; verb.^[3][8]
• 1972 – video game.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The visual part of a television broadcast.
2. A recording of moving images, especially on videotape or in digital form.
3. Television as a medium.

Adjective

1. Relating to televised images.
2. Relating to video recordings or the equipment used to make them.

Verb

1. To make a video recording of.

Word family

• veejay
• videodisc
• videogenic
• videoland
• videophone
• videotex
• reverse video

Related words

• audio
• audiovisual
• television
• vision
• view
• evident
• provide
• wit

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University 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 Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ 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)