foto

Forms

foto f (plural foto's, diminutive fotootje n)^[1] Until the 20th-century spelling reforms it was written photo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a shortening of the older photographie “photograph”, borrowed from French photographie.^[2][1] The French word first meant the making of a picture by light (1834) and then the picture itself (1854); it is a scientific coinage from Ancient Greek φῶς (phôs, “light”), genitive φωτός (phōtós), and the stem of γράφω (gráphō, “to scratch, write, draw”).^[2] The same shortening is found in English (1860), French (1864) and German, but only in Dutch and German did the short form become the only usual one, the EWN notes.^[2]

Van Veen and Van der Sijs, De Vries, and De Vries and De Tollenaere instead derive the Dutch word from English photo, recorded from 1870, and Van der Sijs's dictionaries of first dates and loanwords also name English.^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are de kleine nam de photo uit B.'s handen “the little one took the photo from B.'s hands” (1895) and een photo van de omgeving “a photo of the surroundings” (1898).^[2][7] The long form photographie had been used for such a picture from 1855.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal of 1922 defines photo as a shortening of photographie, especially for the picture made by photography, and notes that it had been usual in England since 1870.^[3] Today it means both the photograph taken and a print of it.^[9][10] Compounds such as fotoalbum, fotomodel and fototoestel follow.^[3]

The Dutch word was borrowed into Indonesian, Madurese, Menadonese, Minangkabau (poto), Sranan Tongo (fowtow), Sarnami and Surinamese Javanese.^[11][1]

Timeline

• 1834 – French photographie is coined for making a picture with light.^[2]
• 1855 – Dutch photographie is used for a photograph.^[2]
• 1870 – English photo is in common use.^[5][3]
• 1895 – Dutch photo is first recorded.^[2]
• 1922 – The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal gives the plural photo's.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A photograph, a picture taken with a camera: Mag ik een foto van jullie maken?^[9][1]
2. A print of a photograph.^[9][10]

Word family

• fotoalbum
• fototoestel
• fotolijst
• fotomodel
• fotoreportage

Related words

• fotografie
• fotograaf
• fotograferen

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Philippa, Marlies; Debrabandere, Frans; Quak, Arend; Schoonheim, Tanneke; Sijs, Nicoline van der (2003–2009), Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands, 4 vols., Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press; online via etymologiebank.nl
3. ^ a b c d e Vries, Matthias de; Winkel, L. A. te, et al. (1882–1998), Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, 29 vols., 's-Gravenhage / Leiden: Nijhoff / Sijthoff / SDU; supplement 2001; gtb.ivdnt.org
4. ^ Veen, P. A. F. van; Sijs, Nicoline van der (1997), Etymologisch woordenboek: de herkomst van onze woorden, 2nd ed., Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Lexicografie
5. ^ a b Vries, Jan de (1971), Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ Vries, Jan de; Tollenaere, Félicien de (2004), Etymologisch woordenboek: onze woorden, hun oorsprong en ontwikkeling, 23rd ed., Utrecht: Het Spectrum, p. 129
7. ^ a b Sijs, Nicoline van der (2001), Chronologisch woordenboek: de ouderdom en herkomst van onze woorden en betekenissen, Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Veen
8. ^ Sijs, Nicoline van der (2005), Groot leenwoordenboek, Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale
9. ^ a b c Van Dale Groot woordenboek hedendaags Nederlands (2014), Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Uitgevers
10. ^ a b WikiWoordenboek (Dutch Wiktionary), nl.wiktionary.org
11. ^ Sijs, Nicoline van der (2010), Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd, Den Haag: Sdu; with additions from the Uitleenwoordenbank (2015)