Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Television
/ˈtɛlɪvɪʒən/noun
The transmission of moving images by radio or cable, and the set that receives them.
The Greek roots
τῆλε
têle
far off, at a distance
Literally: “far sight”
Follow a root:τῆλε7 words
The story of the word
Constantin Perskyi used télévision at the International Electricity Congress in Paris in 1900, a quarter of a century before anyone had a working system. The second half is Latin visio, not Greek, and the hybrid annoyed purists: C. P. Scott of the Manchester Guardian is quoted as saying half Greek, half Latin, no good can come of it. The Greek half is the same distance prefix that makes telephone and telescope, and it also lies behind telepathy, coined in 1882 for feeling at a distance.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek and Latin → French coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1900
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
telephonetelescopetelegraphtelepathy
In a sentence
The television stayed on in the corner with the sound down all evening.