Camcord

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. To secretly film a movie being shown in a theatre by pointing a handheld video camera at the screen
2. Making an unauthorized video recording of a film during its screening, usually from an audience seat
3. Recording a motion picture covertly in a cinema so that pirated copies can be made and distributed

Etymology: Camcord is a back-formation from "camcorder," the handheld video recorder. The clipped form took on a new job: to secretly record a film from inside a cinema, usually with a camcorder held up to the screen, and then distribute the copy. The verb and noun "camcording" describe the same act, and "camcorder" itself is the older word, built from "camera" and "recorder," which is why the illicit sense seems to have grown out of the device's name rather than the other way round. The verb stands on the noun's shoulders in a way that is easy to miss. Because "camcorder" ends in what looks like an agent suffix, speakers stripped that ending off and produced a verb that means the activity rather than the machine. Shortening a noun to make a verb is a common English move, but here it happened in the opposite direction from the usual pattern: the verb's meaning is narrower and more specific than the device it grew from.

Synonyms: record, film, pirate