*keie-

c. 1200, biheste, "a promise or pledge," from Old English behæs "a vow," perhaps from behatan "to promise" (from be- + hatan "command, call") and confused with obsolete hest "command," which may account for the unetymological -t as well as the Middle English shift in meaning to "command, injunction" (late 12c.). Both hatan and hest are from Proto-Germanic *haitanan, for which see hight.

1899, "movie hall," from French cinéma, shortened from cinématographe "device for projecting a series of photographs in rapid succession so as to produce the illusion of movement," coined 1890s by Lumiere brothers, who invented the technology, from Latinized form of Greek kinēmat-, combining form of kinēma "movement," from kinein "to move" (from PIE root *keie- "to set in motion"). For the second element in the French compound, see -graphy.

The word was earlier in English in its fuller form, cinematograph (1896), but this has been displaced by the short form. Other old words for such a system were vitascope (Edison, 1895), animatograph (1898). The meaning "movies collectively, especially as an art form" recorded by 1914. Cinéma vérité is 1963, from French.