Videogram

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A format that combines visual and auditory elements to create a recorded presentation for diverse functions including entertainment and training
2. A recorded medium integrating sound and image, used for purposes ranging from entertainment to educational dissemination
3. A medium that captures both visual imagery and sound for the purpose of conveying information or entertainment in a cohesive format

Etymology: Videogram is a compound built from two pieces: "video-", from Latin "videre" meaning "to see", and "-gram", from Greek "gramma", meaning "something written or drawn." Put together, the parts suggest a record made of seen images, and that is exactly what the word denotes: recorded moving pictures, a term that predates the home-video era by decades. Its shape follows the older pattern of "telegram" and "radiogram," where a technology's name is attached to a Greek-derived ending meaning a message or record. The word's usefulness lies in its precision. Where "video" by itself came to mean the electronic medium or the television picture, "videogram" names the thing produced, the recording itself. The compound therefore keeps a distinction that the shorter word tends to blur, separating the act of seeing from the physical or stored record of what was seen.

Synonyms: video recording, film