camcorder

English

Etymology

Blend of camera +‎ recorder. Appears to be a borrowing from Japanese カムコーダー (kamukōdā), an original registered trademark filed for by Sony in 1981. First use appears c. 1982 in The Economist.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkæmˌkoɹ.dɚ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

camcorder (plural camcorders)

1. A camera recorder: a portable electronic device for recording images and audio on to a storage device, hence functioning as a camera and a recorder in a single unit.
   • 1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings‎^[1], New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 173:

     You know where you never see a camcorder? At a funeral. Wouldn't that be fun? Especially if you didn't know any of the people there. Why not go to a stranger's funeral, and bring your camcorder? Have a little fun! Zoom in on the corpse's nose hairs. Then pull back, and pan over to the widow's tears. Get a tight shot of that. Do a montage of people wracked with grief. Then go home and put a laugh track on it! Smoke a joint and show it to your friends. That would be a lot of fun.

Derived terms

• camrip
• palmcorder

 

Translations

electronic device

• Arabic: كَامِيرَا فِيدِيُو f (kāmērā fīdiyū)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 攝像機／摄像机 (zh) (shèxiàngjī)

• Czech: videokamera f
• Dutch: camcorder (nl) m, videocamera (nl) f
• Finnish: videokamera (fi)
• French: caméscope (fr) m, caméra vidéo f
• German: Videokamera (de) f, Camcorder (de) m
• Japanese: カムコーダー (kamukōdā), ビデオカメラ (ja) (bideokamera)
• Kazakh: бейнекамера (beinekamera)
• Korean: 캠코더 (kaemkodeo), 비디오 카메라 (bidio kamera)
• Portuguese: câmera filmadora
• Russian: видеока́мера (ru) f (videokámera)
• Vietnamese: máy ghi hình, máy quay

Verb

camcorder (third-person singular simple present camcorders, present participle camcordering, simple past and past participle camcordered)

1. (rare, transitive) To record using a camcorder.

References

• “camcorder”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• 'Camcorder' at the Online Etymology Dictionary