The term is a modern compound, combining 'video', a 20th-century borrowing from Latin meaning "I see" which came to denote recorded moving images, with the verb 'edit'. 'Edit' itself originates from the Latin ēdere, meaning "to give out" or "publish", reflecting the publisher's role in selecting and preparing material. The suffix '-ing' transforms the action into a gerund, naming the process. Thus, 'video-editing' logically describes the process of selecting, arranging, and preparing visual recordings for presentation, extending the classical concept of publishing into the digital, visual domain.

Structure: video (visual recording) + edit (prepare for publication) + ing (noun suffix) - video: From Latin vidēre (to see). In this compound, it functions as a noun modifier specifying the medium being worked on. - edit: From Latin ēditus, past participle of ēdere (to give out, publish). In this compound, it functions as the core verb root meaning to prepare and arrange. - ing: From Old English -ung, -ing, a suffix forming verbal nouns. It functions to nominalize the action of the verb 'edit'.