camera

camera¹ room

Etymology tree of camera¹

inherited borrowed derived

Ancient Greek καμάρα

Latin camella

Latin camera

French chambre

Italian camera

Dutch kamer

English camera

Pronunciation

• /ˈka.me.ra/^[4]

Forms

camera f (plural camere, diminutive camerétta or camerìna or camerìno m or (literary) camerèlla, augmentative cameróna or cameróne m, pejorative cameràccia, derogatory camerùccia)^[4] Old Italian forms include cammora, cambra, camora and camara.^[5][6] Southern dialects have càmmara or càmmera with a double consonant.^[7][8]

Etymology

The word for a room is inherited from Latin camera (“vault, vaulted ceiling”), from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára, “vault; vaulted room”).^[5][1][2][4] DELI calls the origin of the Greek word unclear, and Nocentini compares Latin camur (“curved”).^[5][1] The Latin sense “vault” did not survive in popular use, and the sense “room”, recorded only in Augustine and Cassiodorus, continues in all the Romance languages except Romanian: French chambre, Spanish cámara and Portuguese câmara.^[7][1] DEI notes that the original sense was lost and that the modern one begins with Isidore.^[9] Romanian cămară, however, comes from Greek or Slavic.^[10][9] The Latin word was also borrowed into Old High German chamara and Old Irish.^[9]

The Appendix Probi already corrects a form with doubled ⟨mm⟩, which shows that this feature of southern forms is very old.^[7][11] zambra, an old word for a room, came from French and is a doublet.^[10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Marchigian Ritmo di Sant'Alessio of the late 12th century: “Entro en cammora s'enn entrao / et po l'ussu dereto sì 'mserrao” (he went into the room and shut the door behind him).^[5][6][8] The sense is a room of a house, and especially the room where one sleeps.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Inghilfredi has the form cambra in the 13th century, Dante camera (1294–1298), Iacopone camora and Francesco da Barberino camara (1314).^[5] Already in Old Italian the word also named the place where public money was kept and administered, and the office or magistracy in charge of it: Florentine documents of 1277–1296 have it for the treasury of the state.^[5][6]

The sense “legislative assembly” (1531) is a calque of English Chamber of Parliament, and camera alta, camera bassa and camera dei comuni copy Upper Chamber, Lower Chamber and House of Commons.^[5][3] Camera ardente, the room where a body lies in state, follows French chambre ardente, and Panzini explained in 1905 that the camera del lavoro imitated the French Bourse du travail.^[5] Musica da camera was at first music played in the chambers of princes with few instruments.^[9] The Latin-looking phrase in camera caritatis “in private, among friends” seems to mean “in the room of charity”.^[5][9]

Several derivatives came back from other Romance languages: cameriere from Provençal camarier, camerata “comrade” probably from Spanish camarada, and camerista from Spanish camarista.^[5][1]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – Cammora appears in the Ritmo di Sant'Alessio.^[5][6]
• 1277–1296 – It is used for the treasury of the state.^[5]
• 1294–1298 – Dante uses the form camera.^[5]
• 1531 – It is used for a legislative assembly, after English Chamber.^[5]
• Before 1665 – Camerata “comrade” is recorded in Lorenzo Lippi.^[5]
• 1905 – Panzini explains camera del lavoro as an imitation of the French Bourse du travail.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A room of a house or flat used for living in: un appartamento di tre camere e cucina.^[2][3][12]
2. A bedroom; also the set of bedroom furniture: I bambini dormono nella loro camera.^[2][3][13]
3. A hotel room, or a room let to lodgers: Abbiamo prenotato una camera con vista sul lago.^[2][12][14]
4. A closed room or space used for a special purpose: camera oscura (darkroom), camera ardente, camera blindata (strongroom), camera a gas.^[13][14][12]
5. A legislative chamber, especially the Camera dei deputati; in the plural, the two houses of a parliament.^[2][12][4]
6. A body that protects economic or working interests, as in camera di commercio and camera del lavoro.^[12][13]
7. (historical) The treasury of a state and the magistracy that ran it.^[2][12]
8. (anatomy, technology) A small closed cavity in an organ or a device: camera d'aria (inner tube).^[2][12][4]

Word family

• cameretta
• camerino
• camerone
• cameriere
• cameriera
• camerata
• camerale
• camerista
• incamerare
• anticamera
• bicamerale

camera² camera (photography)

Etymology tree of camera²

inherited borrowed derived

Ancient Greek καμάρα

Latin camella

Latin camera

French chambre

Dutch kamer

English camera

Italian camera

Pronunciation

• /ˈka.me.ra/^[4]

Forms

camera f^[3][12]

Etymology

The word for a camera is borrowed from English camera, which English took about 1840 from New Latin camera obscura (“dark chamber”), formed from camera (“room”) and Latin obscūrus (“dark”).^{[1][2][5][15]} DELI treats the photographic sense as a calque of the English word within the older Italian one.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini dates the word to 1902 and GRADIT to 1910;^{[1][2][5][12]} DELI and Sabatini–Coletti give 1942, from Migliorini's appendix to the Panzini dictionary.^{[1][2][5][12]} The sense is a camera for photography or film.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

It now covers cameras for photography, cinema and television, and GRADIT refers the reader to the native words macchina fotografica, cinepresa and telecamera.^[2][12] The compound cameraman, an English word, is recorded from 1908.^[1][5]

Timeline

• 1902 – The loan from English is first recorded, according to Nocentini.^[1]
• 1908 – Cameraman is recorded.^[1]
• 1942 – Migliorini records camera for a film camera.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A camera for photography, film or television, the same as macchina fotografica, cinepresa or telecamera.^[2][3][12]

Word family

• cameraman