Film

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fɪlm/
• Rhymes: -ɪlm
• North East England IPA: /ˈfɪlÉ™m/

Origin

From Middle English filme, from Old English filmen ("film, membrane, thin skin, foreskin"), from Proto-Germanic *filminją ("thin skin, membrane") (compare Proto-Germanic *felma- ("skin, hide")), from Proto-Indo-European *pélno-mo ("membrane"), from Proto-Indo-European *pel(w)-, *plē(w)-, *péln- ("skin, hide"). Cognate with Old Frisian filmene ("thin skin, human skin"), Dutch vel ("sheet, skin"), German Fell ("skin, hide, fur"), Swedish fjäll ("fur blanket, cloth, scale"), Norwegian fille ("rag, cloth"), Lithuanian plėvē 'membrane, scab', Russian language plevá 'membrane', πέλμα (pélma, "sole of the foot"). More at fell. Sense of a thin coat of something is 1577, extended by 1845 to the coating of chemical gel on photographic plates. By 1895 this also meant the coating plus the paper or celluloid.

Full definition of film

Noun

1. A thin layer of some substance; a pellicle; a membranous covering, causing opacity.a clear plastic film for wrapping food
• Alexander PopeHe from thick films shall purge the visual ray.
2. (photography) A medium used to capture images in a camera.
3. A motion picture.
4. A slender thread, such as that of a cobweb.
• ShakespeareHer whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film.

Synonyms

• (motion picture) movie

Derived terms

• filmic
• filmmaker
• filmmaking
• filmography
• filmology
• filmy
• on film

Verb

1. To record a motion picture on photographic film"A Hollywood studio was filming on-location in NYC."
2. To cover with a thin skin or pellicle.
• 1603, William Shakespeare, HamletIt will but skin and film the ulcerous place.

Anagrams

• MILF