Cameraman

How to spell cameraman

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce cameraman

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cameraman mean?

1. nounA person who operates a film or television camera, especially as a job.

Cameraman in a sentence

• The cameraman followed the reporter through the crowded market.

• A steady cameraman kept the wedding footage perfectly smooth.

Where does cameraman come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This compound joins 'camera' with 'man'. The first part comes from the Latin word 'camera', which literally meant a vaulted room or chamber; it survives in Italian as 'camera' (a room) to this day. The modern photographic sense traces to the phrase 'camera obscura', meaning 'dark chamber', a darkened box or room in which an image of the outside world was projected through a small hole. When portable image-capturing devices were invented in the 1800s, the name was shortened simply to 'camera'. The English word 'man' is a native Old English term of Germanic origin meaning an adult person. 'Cameraman' was coined in English around the early twentieth century, as motion pictures and news photography created a job for the person who operated the equipment.

How the word is built

• camera (from Latin camera: chamber, room)
• man (Germanic: adult male person)