Copyright

How to spell copyright

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce copyright

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does copyright mean?

1. nounThe exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, and sell a creative work.
2. verbTo secure legal protection for a creative work as its owner.

Copyright in a sentence

• noun

  The publisher owns the copyright to all of her early novels.

• verb

  The studio chose to copyright every script before any pitch meeting.

• noun

  Using that photograph without permission breaches copyright law.

• verb

  Authors can copyright their manuscripts to prevent unauthorised reproduction.

Where does copyright come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Copyright is a transparent English compound formed from 'copy' and 'right', and its spelling is the whole story. 'Copy' came into Middle English from the Old French copie, which traces back to the Latin copia meaning 'plenty' or 'abundance'; a medieval 'copy' was literally an abundant reproduction made from an original manuscript. 'Right' is a native Germanic word from Old English riht, meaning what is just, lawful, or owed to a person. The two were joined in the early 1700s, around the time of Britain's Statute of Anne in 1710, to name the exclusive legal entitlement to reproduce a work. The crucial spelling trap is that the second element is 'right' (a legal entitlement), not the homophone 'write', even though copyright governs written material; the word means the right to copy, not the act of writing.

How the word is built

• copy (a reproduction)
• right (a legal entitlement)