photography
/fəˈtɒɡɹəfi/fuh-TAH-gruh-fee
/fəˈtɑɡɹəfi/fuh-TAH-gruh-fee
Meaninglight writing
Common meaning: the art of taking photos
- photolightLiddell & Scott, Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon (1889), p. 878 · scan
- graphto scratch marks, hence to write or drawLiddell & Scott, Greek-English Lexicon (1883), p. 317 · scan
- ynoun ending
‘light’ + ‘to scratch marks, hence to write or draw’ → photography
Journey through time
- photo — Greek φῶς, φωτός “light” (path traced)
- graph — Ancient Greek γράφω (gráphō) “to scratch marks, hence to write or draw” (path traced)
Parts join in Greek as φωτο- + -γραφία.
Sources & notes
Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
- No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
- US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
- No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.
Origin: Built on Greek φῶς ‘light’ and Ancient Greek γράφω (gráphō) ‘to scratch marks, hence to write or draw’.
Roots
- γράφω (gráphō) Ancient Greek “to scratch marks, hence to write or draw”
- φῶς, φωτός Greek “light”
Related words
autobiographyautographbibliographybiographycalligraphyepigramepigraphethnographygeographygraphiclithographmonograph
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