Added 9 October 2026
camera
/ˈkæməɹə/ noun
Latin root: camera Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about camera at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- Equipment for taking photographs (usually consisting of a lightproof box with a lens at one end and light-sensitive film at the other).
- Television equipment consisting of a lens system that focuses an image on a photosensitive mosaic that is scanned by an electron beam.
Origin
Learned borrowing from Latin camera (“chamber or bedchamber”), from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára, “anything with an arched cover, a covered carriage or boat, a vaulted chamber, a vault”), of Old Iranian origin, from Proto-Iranian *kamarā- (“something curved”), from *kamárati, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *kmárati, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂em- (“to bend, curve”). Doublet of chamber. (device): An ellipsis of camera obscura, from New Latin camera obscura (“dark chamber”), because the first cameras used a pinhole and a dark room.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)