• photogenic •
Pronunciation: fo-tê-je-nik • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1. Produced or activated by light, as 'a photogenic electrical switch'. 2. Producing or emitting light, as 'fireflies are photogenic'. 3. Photographable, having visual appeal, attractive in photographs.
Notes: Here is a word whose most recent meaning (No. 3 above) is common in the general vocabulary, while the first two definitions are limited mostly to scientific works. Photogenic comes with two nouns, photogenesis for the first two meanings above, and photogenicity for the third.
In Play: Today's word is used most frequently in sense 3 above: "All the covered bridges in Pennsylvania are very photogenic." However, it is still used in the first two senses: "The fireflies awakened the evening in my backyard in a photogenic explosion." (It was an unphotographable light production.)
Word History: Today's Good Word has been around in its first two definitions since 1835. The third sense came into being only around 1922, so it could not have been created in 1925 by Samuel Goldwin, as recently misreported in The Atlantic. Photogenic comprises two Greek combining forms, photo-, from photos "light" + -gen, from Greek -genes "born of, produced by". Photos was created from PIE bha- "to shine", also underlying Sanskrit bhati "shines", Greek fainein "to shine, reveal, appear", and Irish ban "white". Greek -genes comes from genno "I give birth to, generate", the Greek version of PIE gen-/gon- "to beget, give birth to", source also of Sanskrit janati "begets, bears" and janah "child, offspring", Latin gignere "to beget, bear" and genus "race, family, birth", Irish ghin "to beget", Breton genel "to beget", German Kind "child", and English kind and kin. (Now a double thanks to George Kovac of Miami, the newest member of our editorial board and grandmaster contributor of excellent Good Words like today's.)
