Chalcography

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The craft of cutting designs into copper or other metal plates for printing ; the collection of prints or engraved images produced from those plates
2. Engraving on metal plates as an art form used to make printed images ; the engraved pictures or impressions that such plates yield
3. The skill of incising metal sheets to create printable pictures ; the finished engraved works and impressions made from these incised plates

Etymology: Chalcography is the art of engraving on copper, and its name is a plain compound of two Greek elements. "Chalco-" comes from "khalkos," the Greek word for copper or bronze, while "-graphy" comes from "graphia," meaning writing or drawing, from the Greek verb "graphein," to scratch or write. Put together, the name describes cutting a design into a metal plate rather than anything about writing in the modern sense. The second half of the word arrived through a route that passed through French. The suffix "-graphy" traces back to Ancient Greek "-graphia," reached English via Old French "-graphie," and it became a productive way of naming a process or branch of craft. Engravers of the period used the same pattern to name related arts, which is why the word sits comfortably beside other "-graphy" terms.

Synonyms: copperplate engraving