Film
Old English filmen ‘membrane’, of West Germanic origin; related to fell5.
wiktionary
From Middle English filme, from Old English filmen(“film, membrane, thin skin, foreskin”), from Proto-Germanic *filminją(“thin skin, membrane”) (compare Proto-Germanic *felma-(“skin, hide”)), from Proto-Indo-European*pél-mo-(“membrane”), from *pel-(“to cover, skin”). Cognate with Old Frisian filmene(“thin skin, human skin”), Dutch vel(“sheet, skin”), German Fell(“skin, hide, fur”), Swedish fjäll(“fur blanket, cloth, scale”), Norwegian fille(“rag, cloth”), Lithuanian plėvē(“membrane, scab”), Russian плева́(plevá, “membrane”), Ancient Greek πέλμα(pélma, “sole of the foot”). More at fell. Sense of a thin coat of something is 1577, extended by 1845 to the coating of chemical gel on photographic plates. By 1895 this also meant the coating plus the paper or celluloid.
etymonline
film (n.)
Old English filmen "membrane, thin skin, foreskin," from West Germanic *filminjan (source also of Old Frisian filmene "skin," Old English fell "hide"), extended from Proto-Germanic *fello(m) "animal hide," from PIE root *pel- (3) "skin, hide."
Sense of "a thin coat of something" is 1570s, extended by 1845 to the coating of chemical gel on photographic plates. By 1895 this also meant the coating plus the paper or celluloid. Hence "a motion picture" (1905); sense of "film-making as a craft or art" is from 1920.
film (v.)
c. 1600, "to cover with a film or thin skin," from film (v.). Intransitive sense is from 1844. Meaning "to make a movie of" is from 1899. Related: Filmed; filming.
