video (English)
Where does "video" come from?
The English noun 'video' comes directly from the Latin verb 'videō', meaning 'I see'[1][2]. The Latin term traces back through Proto-Italic *widēō to the Proto-Indo-European root *weyd-, meaning 'to know' or 'to see'[2][3]. In English, the form was created by taking the root of Latin 'videō' and adding an ending by analogy with 'audio'[1].
Open questions
- The etymological tree traces a reconstruction from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Italic and Latin. [1] [2] [3]
Full etymology tree
- video (English), 'Television, a television show, or a movie.'
- derived video (Latin), 'to see, perceive; look (at)'
- inherited *widēō (Proto-Italic), 'to see'
- influenced by *wid-é-t (Proto-Indo-European)
- derived *weyd- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to see'
- inherited *widēō (Proto-Italic), 'to see'
- suffix -o (English), 'A colloquializing suffix, typically appended to names, abbreviations of long words, or substantive uses of adjectives.'
- influenced by audio (English), 'Focused on audible sound, as opposed to sight.'
- derived video (Latin), 'to see, perceive; look (at)'
Ancestors
- video (Latin)
Descendants and derived words
- ভিডিও (Bengali)
- ဗီဒီယို (Burmese)
- video (Czech)
- video (Danish)
- video (Dutch)
- body-worn video (English)
- component video (English)
- composite video (English)
- concept video (English)
- described video (English)
- digital video disc (English)
- digital video recorder (English)
Related words
Sources
Updated October 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris