recordingn.
/rᵻˈkɔːdɪŋ/, U.S. /rəˈkɔrdɪŋ/, /riˈkɔrdɪŋ/ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > memory > [noun] > act of remembering, recollection
minOE
thoughtc1175
memorya1275
minninga1325
bethinking1340
record1340
recording1340
remembrancec1350
memoriala1382
rememberinga1382
minsing?a1400
rememorancea1438
mindingc1449
remembrancingc1449
rememorationc1449
resouvenancec1450
umbethinkingc1450
sovenance1477
memoration1562
reminiscence1589
recollecting1604
rememorating1606
recollection1633
evocation1646
recall1651
recordancy1654
anamnesis1656
membrance1827
reliving1919
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 55 Þe blisse þet hi habbeþ ine þe recordinge.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) 2 Tim. i. 5 I haue mynde of thee in my preieris..takinge recordinge or mynde of that feith that is in thee not feyned.
1519 W. Horman Vulgaria xxxii. f. 277 Hvntyng is a playn recordyng of warre.
1580 J. Lyly Euphues & his Eng. in Euphues (new ed.) f. 106 Driving out the remembraunce of his olde loue, with the recording of the newe.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > sound or bird defined by > [noun] > song > singing
warblec1374
baya1522
recording1530
swalingc1540
firdoning1599
sonneting1614
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 261/1 Recordyng of byrdes, patois.
1592 R. Dallington tr. F. Colonna Hypnerotomachia f. 33b A large plaine, resounding all ouer with the sweete chirpings, melodious recordings, and loude singing of them.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Resonnance,..a recording, as of birds.
1681 W. Robertson Phraseologia generalis (1693) 1053 The recording of birds, modulatio avium alterna.
1774 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 63 250 The next stage in the notes of a bird is termed, by the bird-catchers, recording.
1852 A. Pratt Our Native Songsters 49 This practising is by bird fanciers called recording.
3. The action or an act of setting down in writing or putting on record; something which has been recorded in this way.
ΚΠ
1544 Maldon (Essex) Liber B f. 126 The partie..shall cumme immediatlye to the towne-clerk to have hys bargayne recorded and to paye hym for the recordyng of the same bargayne—1d.
1592 W. Wyrley True Vse Armorie 23 For a further proofe of the recording of Genealogies, it is to be considered how diligently the same hath beene obserued through the whole course of the Scriptures.
1611 J. Florio Queen Anna's New World of Words Registratione, a registration, an enroulement, a recording.
1662 E. Stillingfleet Origines Sacræ iv. i. §1 So certain a recording of them, as may be least liable to any suspicion of imposture or deceit.
1684 I. Mather (title) An Essay for the recording of Illustrious Providences.
1752 W. Goodall Adventures Capt. Greenland III. vi. 70 Now we must leave the propitious Recordings of our worthy Hero, and..proceed to Copy the very Words of his own future Journal.
1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scotl. 827 This recording is necessary, in order that the deed may have the benefit of the statute.
1854 Jrnl. Amer. Oriental Soc. 4 250 An epoch of such literary activity as must be assumed to have preceded and accompanied the recording of the Vedic texts.
1903 Pitman's Business Man's Guide 305/1 The recording of the prices at which actual business has been done in any security between the hours of eleven and three.
1950 Accounting Rev. 25 97/1 The chapter assigned in the text included a discussion of the recording of subscriptions to capital stock.
1995 M. Görlach New Stud. Hist. Eng. ii. 21 Considerable attention was directed to..the analysis of the 16th-century recordings of Crimean Gothic.
2003 L. M. Becker Death & Early Mod. Englishwoman v. 103 The recording of many good deaths, whilst still open to interpretation, may describe events with reasonable accuracy.
4. The action or process of registering or preserving something (a measurement, event, etc.) by a machine, instrument, or device; the product of such a process.
ΚΠ
1835 London Jrnl. Arts & Sci. 5 77 The registering or recording of the several amounts of the individual weightings in their respective order is thus effected.
1892 U.S. Patent 478,016 1/1 My invention is designed as an appendage to tram and railway cars, having for its object the automatic recording of the occupancy of each seat.
1923 Science 7 Dec. Suppl. p. x. The machines may also be used for the recording of ‘artificial earthquakes’.
1958 Jrnl. Mammalogy 39 454 An inexpensive apparatus has been designed and used for the simultaneous recording of bladder emptying and total activity displayed by rodents.
2006 B. R. MacIntosh et al. Skeletal Muscle (ed. 2) xiii. 205 The recordings were made with tungsten microelectrodes.
5.
a. The action or process of recording sound or video images for later reproduction. Also in extended use.Recorded earliest in recording room n. at Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > [noun]
re-recording1846
recording1898
audio recording1928
prerecording1937
record1950
1898 Daily Northwestern (Wisconsin) 18 Feb. 4/6 She used to be a concert soloist, but now it pays her to go up into the recording room of the phonograph company and ‘talk’ into the machine several hours every day.
1904 S. R. Bottone Talking Machines & Records 67 Male voices generally come out more true to the singer's timbre than ladies', the delicate overtones of these latter being more altered in recording.
1935 Discovery Oct. 309/1 The air plant has to be shut off for a few minutes during an actual recording, on account of the noise of the air being forced through the ventilators.
1976 I. R. Sinclair Master Stereo Cassette Recording i. 5 Magnetic recording..is almost as old in concept as disc recording, but has had to wait for modern technology to be developed to the stage at which it could be used successfully.
1992 M. Eliot Down Thunder Road i. ix. 122 Jon Landau was the last guy in the world I expected to turn up during the recording of the Born to Run album.
1998 R. Dawkins Unweaving Rainbow iv. 80 In other species, such as the white crowned sparrow or the European chaffinch, it is derived from a ‘recording’ of another male's song, made early in the young male's life from listening to an adult.
2005 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 5 Feb. r1/2 The PVR—also known as the DVR, or digital video recorder—allows viewers to schedule the recording of an entire season of a show at the touch of a button.
b. A series of sounds (esp. a musical performance) or video images stored in permanent form for later reproduction. Also: a disc, tape, or other physical medium on which such sounds or images are stored.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > [noun] > a recording
recording1910
audio recording1928
1910 Washington Post 12 June (Monthly Mag.) 27 (advt.) In these recordings the wonderful golden quality of voice..is found in all its natural beauty.
1925 Musical Times Apr. 347/2 Referring to the recording by a well-known soprano of ‘I attempt from love's sickness to fly’, [etc.].
1958 J. Moir High Qual. Sound Reprod. vii. 130 The standards adopted for 78-r.p.m. recordings have proved unnecessarily robust for electrical reproducers.
1968 Listener 18 July 91/1 The Seekers, lugubriously watching a recording of themselves singing ‘The Carnival is Over’.
1992 Canad. Geographic Jan. 22 (caption) An orca in an adjacent pool gazes over his shoulder while he analyses a recording of whale vocalizations.
2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 20 Nov. iii. 9/2 These are..bootleg recordings made by fans at concerts.
Compounds
In some cases not clearly distinguishable from recording adj. C1. General attributive (in sense 5).
recording session n.
ΚΠ
1927 Melody Maker Sept. 923/1 All their days..appear to be occupied with recording sessions.
1962 Times 5 July 15/4 The raw product of a recording session is a magnetized length of tape.
2000 T. A. Jackson in I. Monson Afr. Diaspora (2003) ii. 64 Performers have the option of stopping a tune in rehearsals or in a recording session if they are not satisfied with it.
recording studio n.
ΚΠ
1916 Newark (Ohio) Daily Advocate 15 Dec. 15/5 (heading) Recording Studio is Prepared for Miss Hirschberg.
1958 M. White in P. Gammond Decca Bk. Jazz xviii. 221 The recording studios, where a number of very fine sides indeed were cut.
2007 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 2 Sept. vii. 11/1 A listening party a few days ago at a Chicago recording studio for his third album, ‘Graduation’.
recording tape n.
ΚΠ
1902 Proc. Royal Soc. 70 256 The recording tapes of the receivers were invariably compared with the written notes and log of the transmitting stations.
1938 Ann. Math. Statistics 9 290 This obstacle is surmounted with an adding machine equipped with a recording tape.
1946 S. B. Williams in Moore School Lect. (1985) 427 The computer also has associated with it and included as part of it a recording tape.
1995 Minerals Today Mar. 70/2 Among 3M's many firsts are..the first commercially acceptable magnetic recording tape (1947).
C2.
recording amplifier n. an amplifier used during recording to amplify the signal which is being recorded.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > sound recording and reproduction > sound recording or reproducing equipment > [noun] > amplifier
recording amplifier1934
1934 Wireless World 5 Jan. 9/3 The recording amplifier is specially designed to amplify the currents delivered by the microphone or ‘A’ amplifier to a degree suitable for the electrical conditions as determined by the recording head.
1964 A. A. McWilliams Tape Recording ix. 185 The purpose of the recording amplifier is to deliver sufficient current to the record head to magnetize the tape correctly over the working frequency range.
1991 P. Copeland Sound Recordings (BNC) 28 The latter invention was an accidental discovery, made when a faulty recording amplifier developed ultrasonic oscillations.
2006 Heart Rhythm 3 517/2 If saturation of the recording amplifier obscured that signal, the electrogram recorded from the adjacent proximal recording electrodes was used.
recording artist n. (a) an artist who paints or draws for documentary purposes; (b) a musician or other performer who makes sound recordings (now the usual sense).
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musician > [noun] > recording artist
recording artist1905
recording artiste1926
recorder1928
1905 Atlanta Constit. 26 July 8/6 Clerk Broyles' force of recording artists.
1917 Evening Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) 3 Nov. 8/2 (advt.) We can exactly ‘duplicate’ the recording of the record with all the personality of the recording artist.
2005 Word Feb. 58/3 It was this super-sensitive hearing that enabled Ray Charles to become effectively the first self-produced recording artist.
recording artiste n. = recording artist n. (b).
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musician > [noun] > recording artist
recording artist1905
recording artiste1926
recorder1928
1926 Washington Post 19 Dec. 1 f/6 The special stage attraction will be supplied by Constance Mering and Muriel Pollock, Duo-Art and Columbia recording artistes.
2003 A. G. Wint Competitiveness in Small Developing Econ. 200 Jamaica's reggae music industry..relied on Jamaican recording artistes.
recording channel n. (a) a circuit or set of equipment used for sound or video recording; (b) each of one or more channels for recording measurements, esp. in equipment used to monitor electrical activity in the brain or selected nerve cells.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > [noun] > accuracy of reproduction > optimum channel for
recording channel1930
1930 U.S. Patent 1,755,485 7/2 The segments of the low speed recording channel are all multiplied together.
1936 Science 3 July Suppl. 12/2 (advt.) We offer a variety of models having one to six amplifying and recording channels with cathode ray and ink-writing oscillographs.
1938 Motion Pict. Sound Engin. (Acad. Motion Pict. Arts & Sci.) v. 69 A stage recording channel uses one or more transmitters on the stage to initiate the electrical energy necessary for recording either on film or on disc.
1975 G. J. King Audio Handbk. x. 237 The controlled amplifier in the recording channel is adjusted in gain by rectified signal from a control amplifier fed from the recording amplifier.
1986 Electroencephalogr. & Clin. Neurophysiol. 64 101 A central scotoma will disturb the morphology of the FF VEP [= full-field visual evolved potential] in the midline recording channel.
recording contract n. a legal agreement which contracts a performer or group to make a specified number of recordings, or to record for a specified period of time, for a particular record company.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal obligation > contract > [noun] > other contracts
lease1483
mutuum1486
pre-contract1563
surcontract1584
nudum pactum1603
contract of location1604
subcontract1660
mandate1781
personal contract1831
protocol1842
severable contract1848
employment contract1891
standard form contract1908
recording contract1922
record contract1924
recording deal1943
record deal1945
EULA1992
1922 N.Y. Times 12 Dec. 22/1 [He] agreed at the time to give all his time to her career, arranging concerts, recitals and taking care of the recording contracts with phonograph companies.
2001 H. Cook et al. Bee Gees (2003) iv. 54 Having a recording contract most certainly did not mean that they had hit the big time, and live performances at strange venues were still the order of the day.
recording deal n. = recording contract n.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal obligation > contract > [noun] > other contracts
lease1483
mutuum1486
pre-contract1563
surcontract1584
nudum pactum1603
contract of location1604
subcontract1660
mandate1781
personal contract1831
protocol1842
severable contract1848
employment contract1891
standard form contract1908
recording contract1922
record contract1924
recording deal1943
record deal1945
EULA1992
1943 Lowell (Mass.) Sun 19 May 19/3 Bing Crosby will make himself a half-million dollars in his new seven-year recording deal with Decca.
2004 J. Moore Dot.homme (2005) ii. 25 Five years of my giving him endless emotional and financial support whilst he tried, unsuccessfully I might add, to get a recording deal.
recording deck n. a tape or video recorder deck (deck n.1 3f) which is designed for recording but not playing back.
ΚΠ
1958 Musical Times 99 141/1 (caption) A corner of the Gramophone Department which Messrs. Novello have recently opened... A tape recording deck is also available for customers' use.
1977 Times 24 Aug. 14/2 Three superior recording decks would cost £8,000.
1992 Videomaker Feb. 23/1 (advt.) Using the infrared signal of the recording deck.., it allows you to make seamless edits, with 3 frame accuracy!
recording engineer n. an engineer responsible for the technical aspects of making a sound or video recording.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > sound recording and reproduction > [noun] > recording engineer
recording engineer1922
1922 Daily News (Huntingdon, Pa.) 21 June 1/3 And here she is making a phonograph record, directed by W. S. Darby, recording engineer.
1946 R. Blesh Shining Trumpets ix. 209 The results are..a tribute to the recording engineer who supervised the ‘take’.
1998 Gramophone Jan. 24/2 Although he had no formal training as a recording engineer, Collier was fascinated by the subject.
recording fee n. (a) a fee paid to have something, esp. a legal transaction, put on record; (b) a fee paid to cover the costs of making a sound or video recording; (c) a one-off fee paid to a performer for making a recording.
ΚΠ
1819 Rules, Regulations & Orders Board of Health Boston 10 For the record of each person buried or entombed, twenty-five cents... The recording fees to be paid quarterly.
1898 Daily News 15 Aug. 7/1 Recording fees are regulated solely by the miners themselves.
1930 Times 21 May 14/2 The minimum production costs per quota picture, excluding the cost of the copyright of the story and music and recording fees.
1932 Times 21 Apr. 4/4 He was to receive a royalty of 1d. and a recording fee of £40 a record.
2002 Southern Econ. Jrnl. 68 552 Title fees.., surveyor's fees, notary fees, and recording fees are commonly incurred during the sale or purchase of agricultural land.
2004 W. Ruhlmann Breaking Records i. 4 Royalties were no more commonly paid to performers than they were to publishers, although performers at least got a recording fee.
2007 Evening Standard (Nexis) 15 Mar. 19 (headline) Fans pay band's recording fees.
recording head n. a head (head n.1 16f(b)) for recording on to magnetic tape or other medium.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > sound recording and reproduction > sound recording or reproducing equipment > [noun] > using tape > part of
recording head1889
pinch wheel1898
capstan1948
deck1949
pinch roller1949
tape deck1949
pinch roll1953
stacked head1954
tape transport1954
1889 U.S. Patent 405,094 1/1 Figure 1 is a top or plan view of a calculating-machine... Fig. 4 is a detail in perspective showing the arrangement of one series or set of recording-heads.
1922 U.S. Patent 1,425,018 2/2 The recording head is not so fixed, however, but drops and rises to compensate for the arc over which the needle moves.
1971 Physics Bull. June 359/1 Some tapes cause excessive wear of expensive recording heads.
1995 Camcorder User Apr. 29/2 Recording heads ‘write’ the signal, and playback heads ‘read’ them.
recording level n. the strength at which a signal is recorded; esp. the level of electronic gain used during a recording; (also) a measure of this.
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society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > [noun] > strength of signal
recording level1928
1928 U.S. Patent 1,654,633 1/1 Arrangements are provided whereby approximately the same recording levels are established at the recorder for speeches in both directions.
1975 G. J. King Audio Handbk. vii. 157 Recording level may be given in terms of amplitude or velocity.
1990 Compact Disc 7 Aug. 36/1 The usual result..is increased distortion at very low signal levels, typically less than −70 d b relative to maximum recording level.
2004 Church Times 6 Aug. 16/5 Five minutes to go, and I was seated at a table opposite the great man, while the soundmen..sorted out recording levels.
recording rights n. the legal rights to make a sound or video recording of something.
ΚΠ
1925 Southtown Economist (Chicago) 8 Sept. 6/7 Eleven phonograph recording companies fought for the recording rights.
1961 Times 29 Mar. 6/2 Parts of the New English Bible are to be issued on long-playing records. The University Presses of Oxford and Cambridge have granted recording rights to Leomark, Limited.
2005 D. A. Carson Grit, Noise, & Revolution iii. 30 Starfire had objected when Joe Carlton wanted publishing as well as recording rights on a particular song.
recording room n. a room in which recording, esp. sound recording, takes place.
ΚΠ
1844 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 1841–3 2 57 The springs being in the recording room, their action may be observed at any time, and repairs or changes required may be readily made.
1898 [see sense 5a]. 1975 Lang. for Life (Dept. Educ. & Sci.) xxv. 425 Almost a quarter of the schools had a projection room and 14 per cent a recording room.
2005 B. Owsinski Recording Engineer's Handbk. vii. 178 Place your tambourine player in the..brightest part of your recording room.
recording secretary n. chiefly North American a person responsible for keeping official records for an organization or body.
ΚΠ
1780 C. Gannett in J. Bowdoin Philos. Disc. Pref. He be desired to favor the Academy with a copy of the Oration, to be deposited with the Recording Secretary.
1862 W. Lincoln Hist. Worcester 397 St. John's Christian Doctrine Association... Thomas L. Magennis, Recording Secretary.
1968 H. S. Thompson Let. 12 Jan. in Fear & Loathing in Amer. (2000) 16 Johnson..summoned me to the White House for a toilet-side interview with two recording secretaries.
2007 Tire Business (Nexis) 10 Sept. 7 Between 320 and 340 workers..would have been affected by the incentive program, according to..[the] recording secretary for Local 1055.
recording van n. a van equipped for making sound or video recordings, esp. one from which outside broadcasts are made.
ΚΠ
1929 Times 5 June 12/4 The Gaumont Company are sending 16 cameramen to the Derby..operating from two recording vans on the course.
1940 P. Fleming Flying Visit i. 17 Wires..poured into the streamlined flanks of a..lightly armoured recording van.
2001 Birmingham Post (Nexis) 6 July 14 BBC Radio 3..automatically sends its recording vans year after year to festivals such as those at Cheltenham and Aldeburgh.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
recordingadj.
/rᵻˈkɔːdɪŋ/, U.S. /rəˈkɔrdɪŋ/, /riˈkɔrdɪŋ/ 1. That records (in various senses).In some cases not clearly distinguishable from attributive uses of recording n.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > [adjective] > recording
recording1892
1568 E. Tilney Brief Disc. Mariage sig. A.4. Ye sweete recording birdes.
1583 B. Melbancke Philotimus Here be gan afreshe to repeat his miserie, which he could neuer repel from his recording memorie.
1696 M. Pix Ibrahim iv. 26 Yes, injur'd fair, To the last Periode of recording Time, Thy fragrant Name will bless the World!
1781 W. Cowper Table Talk 21 When recording History displays Feats of renown.
1782 W. Cowper Conversation in Poems 240 Marble and recording brass decay.
1870 J. H. Burton Hist. Scotl. to 1688 VI. lxv. 268 Had the Romans been a recording people like the Normans [etc.].
1892 W. Gillett Phonograph iii. 82 Adjust the screw on the guide rod until the recording stylus makes a slight groove on the revolving wax cylinder.
1937 ‘M. Innes’ Hamlet, Revenge! iii. iii. 249 Phonetic nicety apart..the machine..combined recording and reproducing units in an unusually compact way.
1965 New Eng. Q. 38 102 A flexible, good humored observer with as keen an eye and as precise a recording pen as we see in Hawthorne's Notebooks.
2006 Weekend Australian (Nexis) 20 May (Review section) 12 Anderson's recording eye captures the random collapse of order.
2. Of a measuring instrument: able to produce a record of readings obtained.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > measurement > measuring instrument > [adjective] > attributes of measuring instruments
graduated1806
self-recording1838
recording1857
centre-zero1879
scaled1900
zeroable1956
1857 U.S. Patent 17,355 2/2 If desirable, a dot-and-line register or recording-instrument may be added.
1873 F. Jenkin Electr. & Magn. xxii. §7 The electro-magnet of the recording instrument.
1904 R. M. Walmsley Electr. in Service of Man i. ix. 357 A recording wattmeter, which would record the number of watts at every instant, so that..the total energy could be measured up or calculated.
1930 C. J. Stewart Aircraft Instruments viii. 146 It is sometimes necessary to record the temperature of the air during flight, and for this purpose recording thermometers are used.
1961 R. Rawlinson in G. F. Tagg Pract. Electr. Engin. III. 363 Situations demanding the use of a recording ammeter are fortunately not common.
1998 C. Mims When we Die (1999) v. 117 Brain-dead signifies the irreversible absence of forebrain and brain-stem function. This is the ‘flat line’ on a recording device such as an electroencephalogram.
Compounds
recording angel n. an angel who records a person's good and bad actions.Apparently coined by Sterne as a fanciful image (in a passage that was the subject of frequent quotation and allusion: see quot. 1762) but subsequently sometimes treated as an actual theological concept.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > angel > [noun] > angels with specific tasks
angel of death1565
chorister1584
recording angel1762
death angel1796
destroying angel1814
1762 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy VI. viii. 42 The Recording Angel as he wrote it down, dropp'd a tear upon the word.
1776 D. Bellamy Family-preacher (ed. 2) I. 1 Let us suppose those Volumes of the recording Angel of God were before us.
1830 J. Galt Lawrie Todd III. ix. ix. 293 It was as if he stood face to face in the presence, confessing every sin that the recording angel had written in the ancient volume of the Book of Life against him.
1841 E. W. Lane tr. Thousand & One Nights I. 30 Every believer is attended by two guardian and recording angels.
1932 A. Powell Venusberg xxxiii. 235 How will it feel when the Recording Angel calls your bluff for the last time?
1995 J. Banville Athena 4 The one unalloyed good deed I could point to in my life, the thing I thought might go some way towards balancing my account in the recording angel's big black book.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1340
adj.1568