"television" in seven languages

Meaningtelevision

Spanish

televisión

/telebiˈsjon/

fem.learned

Everyday speech says la tele.

French

télévision

/televizjɔ̃/

fem.learned

Everyday speech says la télé.

Italian

televisione

/televiˈzjone/

fem.learned

Everyday speech says la tv or la tivù.

Portuguese

televisão

/televiˈzɐ̃w/

fem.learned

Everyday speech says a TV or a tevê.

Romanian

televiziune

/televiziˈune/

fem.learned

The set is televizor, and 'to watch TV' is se uita la televizor.

Catalan

televisió

/tələbiziˈo/

fem.learned

Everyday speech says la tele.

English

television

/ˈtɛləvɪʒən/

from Latin/French · modern coinage: Greek tēle 'far' + vision

English → ItaliantelevisiontelevisioneCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

VĪSIŌNEM (with Greek tēle- 'far')‘sight, seeing’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

A modern hybrid: Greek 'far' plus Latin 'seeing', built the same way in all four languages. Each sister clips it in speech: la tele, la télé, la tv.

English relatives: vision, visible, video, telephone