English
cinema
Cinema comes from French cinéma ‘cinema, filmmaking’, from Ancient Greek γράφω ‘to scratch, cut into’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- ‘to carve’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gerbʰ-‘to carve’reconstructed
- Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*grə́pʰō‘to scratch, cut or carve into’reconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEγράφωgráphō‘to scratch, cut into’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentcinématographe
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentcinéma‘cinema, filmmaking’
- Englishearliest quotation 2005cinema
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gerbʰ-‘to carve’reconstructed
- Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*grə́pʰō‘to scratch, cut or carve into’reconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEγράφωgráphō‘to scratch, cut into’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentcinématographe
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentcinéma‘cinema, filmmaking’
- Englishearliest quotation 2005cinema
Earliest quotation: 2005, Tom O'Regan, Australian National Cinema: “The French and Italian cinemas can seem to persist…”
The story
Borrowed from French cinéma, clipping of cinématographe (term coined by the Lumière brothers in the 1890s), from Ancient Greek κίνημα (kínēma, “movement”) + γράφω (gráphō, “write, record”).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- ‘to carve’
grammar, crawl, crab, carve, crawfish, astrophotography, 80 more
through Proto-Hellenic *grə́pʰō ‘to scratch, cut or carve into’
photography, graffiti, graft, demography, grimoire, ultrasonography, epigraph, sonography, 74 more
through Ancient Greek γράφω ‘to scratch, cut into’
Today it means
noun A movie theatre, a movie house.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- / cinema