Etymologically
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cinema

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈt͡ʃi.ne.ma/[1]

Forms

cinema m (invariable)[1]

Etymology

It is a clipping of cinematografo, and is borrowed from French cinéma (1900), the clipped form of cinématographe.[2][3][4][5][6] The variant cinemà, stressed in the French way, was also used.[2][7]

The French word was coined by Léon Bouly for an apparatus he patented in 1893, from Ancient Greek κίνημα (kínēma, “movement”) and -graphe, and, from 1895 it spread with the invention of the Lumière brothers.[2][3][1] The Italian word is recorded from 1898, and the spelling kinematografo in 1905.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date the word to 1916, the year in which cinematografo is also first recorded for the hall where films are shown.[4][3][5][2] DELI's first record is Panzini's dictionary of 1918, which also tells that the word came through French.[2]

Semantic evolution

Panzini noted that the clipped word kept the stress on the first syllable that the first part of cinematògrafo had, and that the pronunciations cinèma and cinemà were dying out; a song of uncertain date ran cinemà, cinemà / o che bella novità.[7][2] In the 20th century the word named both the art and the hall: Emilio Cecchi describes the cashiers selling tickets at the entrance of the cinemas, and Corrado Alvaro writes that the cinema had given people a new sense of acting as in a fiction.[7]

Today it names the art and technique of films, the film industry, the films of a country or period, and the cinema hall.[4][5][8] In colloquial use a cinema is also a chain of mishaps, or something chaotic and odd.[8][9]

Timeline

  • 1893 – Léon Bouly coins French cinématographe.[2][3]
  • 1898 – Italian cinematografo is recorded.[2][3]
  • 1900 – French cinéma is recorded.[2][4]
  • 1916 – Italian cinema is first recorded.[4][3][5]
  • 1918 – Panzini's dictionary records cinema and its French origin.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. cinema: the art and technique of making and showing films: Si è appassionato di cinema all'università.[4][5][8]
  2. The film industry: Lavora nel cinema da vent'anni.[4][5][8]
  3. The films of a country, period or school: il cinema giapponese del dopoguerra.[4][9]
  4. A cinema hall, a movie theater: Ci vediamo davanti al cinema alle nove.[4][8][10]
  5. (colloquial, figurative) A chain of mishaps; something chaotic or bizarre.[8][9]

Word family

  • precinema
  • cine-
  • cinegiornale
  • cinemateatro
  • cinematico
  • cinematografia
  • cineparcheggio
  • teatro
  • cinematografo

Usage notes

Cinema is invariable: il cinema, i cinema.[1][5] The short form cine is also used.[4][8] A separate technical word cinema, plural cinemi, was formed by Pasolini in Empirismo eretico (1965) on the model of fonema, for the smallest unit of gesture or of a film sequence.[4][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 943
  7. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  9. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana