photography (English)
Where does "photography" come from?
English photography was borrowed from French photographie. The French word was built from photo- and -graphie, and in English the parts are understood as “light” plus “writing/drawing,” from Greek φωτός (phōtós, “of light”) and γράφω (gráphō, “I write”). So the word originally meant something like “drawing with light,” which fits the process of making images by light.
Full etymology tree
- photography (English), 'The art and technology of producing images on photosensitive surfaces, and its digital counterpart.'
- borrowed from photographie (French), 'photography'
- compound of photo- (French), 'light; photo-'
- derived from φωτός (Ancient Greek), 'genitive singular of φῶς (phôs)'
- compound of -graphie (French), '-graphy'
- derived from γράφω (Ancient Greek), 'to scratch, cut into'
- inherited from *grə́pʰō (Proto-Hellenic), 'to scratch, cut or carve into'
- inherited from *gerbʰ- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to carve'
- inherited from *grə́pʰō (Proto-Hellenic), 'to scratch, cut or carve into'
- derived from γράφω (Ancient Greek), 'to scratch, cut into'
- compound of photo- (French), 'light; photo-'
- borrowed from photographie (French), 'photography'
Direct ancestors
Updated March 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris