photograph

Where does the word "photograph" come from? It comes from Greek phos + graphe, and was adopted directly into English (1839).

Photograph’s story begins in Greek: phos + graphe meant “light writing.” Combining "phos" (light) and "graphe" (writing, drawing). It reached English by 1839 as photograph. Coined from Greek roots to describe the new image-capturing process. Today, photograph means an image captured and recorded by a camera.

1. Stage 1 · Greek · ancient phos + graphe "light writing", combining "phos" (light) and "graphe" (writing, drawing).
2. Stage 2 · English · 1839 photograph "an image captured by light-sensitive material", coined from Greek roots to describe the new image-capturing process.