section_path: Etymology
section_name: Etymology
paragraph_text: Etymology
  
  The word television comes from Ancient Greek τῆλε (tele) 'far' and Latin visio 'sight'. The first documented usage of the term dates back to 1900, when the Russian scientist Constantin Perskyi used it in a paper that he presented in French at the first International Congress of Electricity, which ran from 18 to 25 August 1900 during the International World Fair in Paris.
  
  The anglicized version of the term is first attested in 1907, when it was still "...a theoretical system to transmit moving images over telegraph or telephone wires ". It was "...formed in English or borrowed from French télévision." In the 19th century and early 20th century, other "...proposals for the name of a then-hypothetical technology for sending pictures over distance were telephote (1880) and televista (1904)."
  
  The abbreviation TV is from 1948. The use of the term to mean "a television set " dates from 1941. The use of the term to mean "television as a medium" dates from 1927.
  
  The term telly is more common in the UK. The slang term "the tube" or the "boob tube" derives from the bulky cathode-ray tube used on most TVs until the advent of flat-screen TVs. Another slang term for the TV is "idiot box."