(~3 minutes to read)
When I receive enquiries for my video services, the verb “film” is usually in there somewhere. For example, “I was wondering if you’re available to film my business presentation on [date].”
The thing is, the pedant in me cringes at the use of the word “film”. My video cameras don’t use film. Years ago, I used tape-based cameras, and I would have responded to the above enquiry using “tape” or “video tape” as the verb. But since 2009, I’ve been using card-based cameras, so even “tape” is an outdated verb for my video services. However, I don’t think the world is ready for me to “card” their presentation or wedding or whatever, so I found myself looking for another word that iPedant could live with. “Capture”? “Record”? What other choices are there?
Then I started thinking about the way that technology hijacks old words (or perhaps it steals, liberates, or recycles them) in order to describe the actions undertaken by or with the new technology.
Pulling the Chain
Some people still refer to flushing a toilet this way. Both the houses I grew up in had toilets with elevated cisterns that emptied into the toilet bowl when a chain was pulled. But I moved out of my family home in 1979 and haven’t lived in a house with a “pull the chain” toilet since. I haven’t seen a toilet chain for years, yet I still occasionally hear the phrase used.
Steamroller
I’ve almost always referred to road rollers as “steamrollers”, despite the fact that they’ve been powered by diesel engines since before I was born. And it turns out that calling them “steamrollers” is still current – yay! – I thought I was just clinging to old terms!
Dialling a Number
Although they’re rare, rotary dial phones are still around. But now there are apps out there for smartphones that emulate a telephone dial (here’s a link to a Youtube video of one such app. )
And the neat thing is, kids know what you mean by “dial a number” even if they’ve never seen a rotary dial phone. The vast majority of us press buttons (or icons on a screen pretending to be buttons) and accept that we’re “dialling”. But if you tell your smartphone to “Call Mom” and it connects for you, does that still count as “dialling”? And will we ever adopt a new verb? I’ve heard “touch” and “press” used, but only on automated telephone system menu instructions. “Call” seems to be used a fair bit, but “dial” just doesn’t seem to want to die.
Chauffeur
For the last I-don’t-know-how-long, I’d been under the impression that this term originated from the need to provide some form of heat in the very early automobiles, and it fell to the hired driver to perform this by putting earthenware hot water containers on board the vehicle for the passengers to snuggle up to.
Where did I get this story?!
The true origin of “chauffeur” is that it was a late 19th century word for “motorist”, and came from the French word for “stoker” in reference to the person who feeds the fire on a steam-powered vehicle.
So those impressively-uniformed people who drive rich people around in exotic vehicles are named after the hairy-bummed, sweaty, dirty, sometimes-semi-naked working class chappies who shovelled coal into boilers. What a high-contrast visual juxtaposition that creates!
But back to cameras and film and such.
Camera: A borrowed word – it’s Latin for “vault” or “chamber”. When a public meeting goes “in camera”, the participants shuffle off to a back room somewhere to talk/negotiate in secret. That part of their meeting isn’t recorded on camera or by any other means. The word “camera” refers to the room, and by rights there should be no cameras in camera.
Card: The origin of this word can be traced back to the Greek word for papyrus leaf.
Video: The Oxford Dictionary Online defines the verb “video” thus: “film with a video camera”.
So although I’m not recording moving images on a papyrus leaf located in a room, I am shooting video using a card-based camera.
And since people routinely use old-technology words unashamedly when referring to new technology, I think I’m ready to start referring to “filming” presentations with no sense of discomfort.