English
photography
Photography is borrowed from French photographie, ultimately from Greek φῶς ‘light’ + γράφω ‘to write, draw’.
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English photography
Lineage
- Frenchc. 1600–presentphotographieWiktionary, English photography
- EnglishtodayphotographyWiktionary, English photography
The story
By surface analysis, photo- + -graphy, together meaning "drawing with light" or "representation by means of lines", "drawing".
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with photography, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- ‘to carve’
through Proto-Hellenic *grə́pʰō ‘to scratch, cut or carve into’
through Ancient Greek γρᾰ́φω ‘to scratch, cut into’
203 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun The art and technology of producing images on photosensitive surfaces, and its digital counterpart.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “photography”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / French photographie / photography