cinematography

The word 'cinematography' is a modern scientific compound built from Greek roots to precisely describe a new art form. Its first element, 'cinema', derives from the Greek kinēma (movement), which itself comes from the verb kinein (to move). The second element, '-tography', originates from the Greek -graphia, denoting the process of writing or recording, from graphein (to write). Thus, the term's literal construction means "the process of recording movement," which perfectly captures the technical essence of creating motion pictures through the photographic recording of successive images. It entered English in the late 19th century, coinciding with the invention of the motion picture camera.

Structure: cinema (motion pictures) + tography (process of recording) - cinema: From Greek kinēma (movement, motion). In this compound, it refers to motion pictures. - tography: From Greek -graphia (writing, recording, process of recording). In this compound, it denotes the art or process of recording.