film

Pronunciation

• IPA: /film/^[1]

Forms

film m (plural films)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English film (“membrane, skin; thin layer”), from Old English filmen, used in English photography since 1845 for the coating of gelatine on a plate, and about 1880 for the roll film used in instant photography and then in cinema.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Rey compares Old High German fel (“skin”), Old Norse fjall, Latin pellis (“skin”) and Ancient Greek πέλμα (pélma, “sole”), usually connected with a root “*pel-” “to cover”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1889 in Balagny's Traité de photographie, in papier American film, meaning a strip of film for instant photography.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In 1896 it was applied to cinema film, and by metonymy to the developed film carrying a cinematographic work (Méliès's catalogue, 1896–1897); the sense “a film, a work of cinema” is dated 1896 by Rey and 1912 by the TLFi.^[2][3][4] From 1922 it also meant figuratively a sequence of events, and recently ne rien comprendre au film “not to understand what is going on”.^[3]

Taken again from English, it came to mean a thin layer of a substance: the TLFi dates this to 1931, but a coat of car paint is called a film in 1927 and dental film is advertised in 1933.^[2][7] Feuil has been proposed as a French equivalent.^[3] The verb filmer dates from 1908, and microfilm from 1931.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1889 – Photographic film.^[2]
• 1896 – Cinema film.^[2][4]
• 1908 – The verb filmer.^[4]
• 1912 – “A film, a work of cinema”.^[2]
• 1922 – Figuratively, a sequence of events.^[3]
• 1927 – A thin layer.^[7]
• 1931 – Microfilm.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Photographic film.^[8][9]
2. Cinema film: un film de 35 mm.^[8]
3. A film, a movie: tourner un film, un film en version originale.^[8][9]
4. Cinema as an art: festival du film.^[9]
5. (figurative) The course of events: le film des événements, (familiar) ne rien comprendre au film.^[3]
6. A thin layer, coating: un film protecteur.^[9][3]
7. cling film: film alimentaire.^[9]

Word family

• filmer
• filmique
• filmographie
• microfilm

Related words

• English film

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 18, 61b
7. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)