celluloid
pronunciation
How to pronounce celluloid in British English:
UK [ˈseljulɔɪd]
How to pronounce celluloid in American English:
US [ˈsɛljəˌlɔɪd]
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- Noun:
- highly flammable substance made from cellulose nitrate and camphor; used in e.g. motion-picture and X-ray film; its use has decreased with the development of nonflammable thermoplastics
- a medium that disseminates moving pictures
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- Adjective:
- artificial as if portrayed in a film
Word Origin
- celluloid (n.)
- transparent plastic made from nitro-celluloses and camphor, 1871, trademark name (reg. U.S.), a hybrid coined by U.S. inventor John Wesley Hyatt (1837-1900) from cellulose + Greek-based suffix -oid. Used figuratively for "motion pictures" from 1934. Abbreviated form cell "sheet of celluloid" is from 1933 (see cel).
Example
- 1. Combs were among the first and most popular objects made of celluloid .
- 2. But in the late nineteenth century , that panoply of possibilities began to fall away with the arrival of a totally new kind of material - celluloid , the first man-made plastic .
- 3. In the projection booth , two machines whirred : a digital one , which in the event worked perfectly , and an old-fashioned celluloid one , which was on hand in case the more advanced technology became unruly .
- 4. For people at the dawn of the plastic age , celluloid offered what one writer called " a forgery of many of the necessities and luxuries of civilized life , " a foretoken of the new material culture 's aesthetic and abundance .
- 5. Competing against a celluloid legend is not easy .