cinema (English)

Where does "cinema" come from?

The English noun 'cinema' was borrowed from French 'cinéma'[1], which originated as a clipping of 'cinématographe'[2]. This longer term was coined by the Lumière brothers in the 1890s[1][5] by combining the Ancient Greek 'κίνημα'[1][5] meaning 'movement'[1] with a suffix derived from 'γράφω' meaning 'write or record'[1]. The Greek root traces further back to 'κινέω'[4], which stems from the Proto-Indo-European root '*keyh₂-' meaning 'to start to move'[4].

Full etymology tree

cinema (English), 'A movie theatre, a movie house.'
- borrowed cinéma (French), 'cinema, filmmaking (the art of making films and movies)'
  - clipping cinématographe (French), 'cinematograph'
    - compound κίνημα (kínēma) (Ancient Greek), 'movement'
      - derived κινέω (kinéō) (Ancient Greek), 'to set in motion, move, remove'
        derived *keyh₂- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to move, be in motion'
      - suffix -μα (-ma) (Ancient Greek), 'Added to verbal stems to form neuter nouns denoting the effect or result of an action, a particular instance of an action, or the object of an action'
    - compound -graphe (French), '-graph (device for measuring, writing, etc.)'
      - derived γράφω (gráphō) (Ancient Greek), 'to scratch, cut into'
        derived *grə́pʰō (Proto-Hellenic), 'to scratch, cut or carve into'
        derived *gerbʰ- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to carve'

Ancestors

*keyh₂- (Proto-Indo-European)
cinéma (French)
κίνημα (Ancient Greek)

Cognates and doublets

Kino (German)

Descendants and derived words

absolute cinema (English)
anticinema (English)
cinemaddict (English)
cinema-goer (English)
cinemagoer (English)
cinemagoing (English)
cinemagoing (English)
cinema hall (English)
cinemaholic (English)
cinemaic (English)
cinemalike (English)
cinemansion (English)

Sources

Updated September 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris