Telecopying

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The process of transmitting printed or written material over telephone lines by scanning and sending signals that reproduce the original document at a remote location
2. A method of electronically sending copies of documents via telecommunication systems by converting text and images into a format suitable for transmission and printing elsewhere
3. The act of duplicating text or images remotely through telecommunication channels, facilitating the transfer of information from one place to another by scanning and reprinting content

Etymology: "Copy" began as a word for plenty. Its ancestor, Latin "copia," meant abundance or supply. In medieval Latin it came to mean a transcript, a written text made to multiply a document. That sense passed into English through Old French "copie," and the modern idea of a duplicate grew from it. The "tele-" element comes from Greek "tēle," meaning "far off." English has many compounds built on it, such as "telegraph" and "telephone," which were coined from classical roots to describe communication over a distance. "Telecopying" follows the same pattern: a copy made and sent across that distance.

Synonyms: faxing, facsimile transmission