still

Definitions

General English

adverb in
spite
of
everything

Computing

noun a single image or frame within a video or film
sequence

Electronics

A single
stationary
image from a motion
picture
, or that presented on a
TV
,
computer
monitor, or the like. Also called still frame.

Information & Library Science

noun one
single
frame from a video or film

Media Studies

adjective designed for, or relating to the process of, taking photographs as opposed to making films
noun a
photographic
print, either made from a single frame of a film or shot independently with a still camera during
production

Origin & History of “still”

The adjective still ‘not moving’ (OE) comes

from

a prehistoric

west

Germanic *stillja or *stellja,

which

also

produced German still and Dutch stil. It was derived from the base *stel- ‘fixed, not moving, standing’ (a variant of which lies

behind

English

stalemate and stall). It was used as an

adverb

in the Old English period, denoting ‘not changing physical position’, and

this

gradually evolved metaphorically via ‘never changing or stopping, always’ to (in the 16th century) ‘until now’. The

noun

still ‘distilling apparatus’ (16^th c.) is of course a

different

word. It comes from the now

defunct

verb

still ‘distil’. This was short for distil (14^th c.), which came from Latin distillāre, a derivative ultimately of the noun stilla ‘drop’ (source also of English instil (16^th c.)).

Nearby Definitions of “still”

Contexts for “still”

6 definitions in context

Origin & History