Cinematise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To turn a written story, novel or play into a motion picture by filming it for the cinema
2. Adapting a narrative or piece of writing so that it can be presented as a feature film on screen
3. Making a film version of an existing work, transferring its plot and characters to the big screen

Etymology: "Cinematise" is built from "cinema" and the verb-forming suffix "-ise." "Cinema" is a clipping of "cinematograph," a name for an early motion-picture device. That name combines the Greek "kinema," meaning movement, and "graphein," meaning to write or record, so the original sense was roughly "recording movement." The suffix has a longer route. It comes from Greek "-izein," which Latin adopted as "-izare" and French later turned into "-iser." English has used it for centuries to turn nouns and adjectives into verbs, with the sense of making something into, or treating it in the manner of, the base word. Adding it to "cinema" follows the same pattern as older verbs like "mechanise" or "modernise."

Synonyms: film, adapt