Photocopies

/ˌfoʊtoʊˈkɑːpiz/ noun

Definition

Exact reproductions of documents or images made by a machine that uses light and chemistry to copy paper.

Etymology

Compound of 'photo-' from Greek 'phos' meaning light, and 'copy' from Latin 'copia' meaning abundance. The word coined in the 1950s-60s when Xerox machines became common.

Kelly Says

Before photocopiers, monks spent lifetimes hand-copying books—photocopies democratized information overnight, but we forgot how radical this was, now that we carry scanning machines in our phones.

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