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telecamera

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word telecamera

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
1936
Ultimate origins
Italian tele-Ancient Greek καμάρα
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek καμάρα
Latin camella
Latin camera
French chambre
Dutch kamer
English camera
Italian camera
Italian telecamera

Pronunciation

  • /ˌte.leˈka.me.ra/, /ˌtɛ.leˈka.me.ra/[1]

Forms

telecamera f (plural telecamere)[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from Italian tele- + camera, with ⟨tele-⟩ standing for televisione and ⟨camera⟩ in the English sense of a photographic camera.[2][3][4][5] Sabatini–Coletti and Wiktionary see an English model behind it, the phrase television camera.[5][1] Battaglia explains it as a compound of that noun and fotocamera.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT, Zingarelli and Sabatini–Coletti date the word to 1936, and Battaglia's earliest quotation is from the magazine Cinema of that year: “La telecamera di Zworykin” (“Zworykin's television camera”).[2][3][5][6] Devoto–Oli give 1959.[4]

Semantic evolution

In 1939 the magazine Panorama described the images taken by television cameras being processed in a darkened room, and L'Illustrazione Italiana used it in 1955.[6] The modern dictionaries distinguish the studio camera on a tripod from the portable one carried on the shoulder, and add the telecamera di sorveglianza or a circuito chiuso for surveillance and the reversing camera of a car.[7][4] In television jargon it is also called simply camera.[5] By extension it is any camera that records moving pictures.[1]

Timeline

  • 1936 – The magazine Cinema writes of Zworykin's telecamera.[6][2]
  • 1939 – Panorama uses the plural telecamere.[6]
  • 1955 – L'Illustrazione Italiana uses the word.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Television camera: an apparatus that turns an optical image into an electric video signal, for recording or live broadcasting: Le telecamere hanno ripreso tutta la cerimonia.[2][4][7]
  2. By extension, a video camera, including one used for surveillance: Una telecamera sorveglia il parcheggio.[1][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  6. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 806
  7. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
Cite this entry

“Telecamera.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/telecamera. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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