camera
/ˈkæməɹə/ noun, proper noun
Forms cameras cameræ camerae
- noun (photography) A device for taking still or moving pictures or photographs.
- noun (computer graphics, video games) The viewpoint in a three-dimensional game or simulation.
- noun A vaulted room.
- noun A judge's private chamber, where cases may be heard in camera.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Etymology
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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A chamber, or instrument having a chamber. Specifically: The camera obscura when used in photography. See Camera, and Camera obscura. Bellows camera. See under Bellows.
Etymology [L. vault, arch, LL., chamber. See Chamber.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “camera”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details