Televise

The verb 'to televise' is one of those verbs ending in the sound 'EYES' (IPA: /aɪz/) for which, despite the advice in -ise - -ize, the spelling with -ise "is compulsory" (Burchfield's Fowler, s.v. -ise). It follows the rule that when such verbs include -vis- (seeing) in their stems, the spelling remains -ise-.

Televise, along with its source television. is an example well-known to pedants of a 'bastard' etymology. One element ('tele-') is from Greek (τῆλε meaning 'far off', or 'from afar'), while the other element ('vision') is from Latin (visio[nem], 'sight' or 'thing seen', being the past participle stem of videre, 'to see'.) In the days when Higher Education still demanded competence in the Classics from all students, a word invented from the two separate languages was regarded as an improper mingling. Unfortunately, the pure form from the Greek σκοπειν ('to look'), σκοπος‚ ('looker') had already been used for another invention - the telescope, while pure Latin proculvision (procul, 'far off') seems ugly as an English word.

Tele- has become a much used prefix in modern technology, where the development of electronics, automatic sensors and the exploration of space have allowed the development of such things as measuring earthquakes teleseismically, temperatures by telethermometry and water pressure with a telehydrobarometer, as well as telemessaging, perhaps by the use of telesoftware.