Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Mid-century: TV and science ·1965
Pixel
picture element
- Meaning
- The smallest addressable unit of a digital image.
- Source words
- picture + element
- Coined by
- Frederic C. Billingsley
- Year
- 1965
Background
Coined at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for images from the Mariner 4 Mars flyby. Earlier "pel" (same idea, uglier shape) appeared in the 1940s but never caught on.
Mid-century: TV and science
Two engines dominated: television (sitcom, televangelist) and post-war big science (pulsar, transistor). Many mid-century coinages came from scientific style sheets and industry journals.
Two words, one coinage.
Browse every portmanteau on the shelf — or cross over to the loanwords atlas.