Okay, how many of you know why written material is called ‘copy’?
Confession: I don’t. Well… I didn’t until I wrote this article.
I remember stumbling upon copywriting as a career and being confused. How is a job dedicated to writing original written material called copywriting? (sounds like an oxymoron if I ever heard one!)
I ended up getting a job in copywriting (here I am!). But I decided to leave confusion about my job title far behind me, something to deal with later.
That later time is now. So let’s piece its meaning together – together.
'Copy' comes from the word 'copiae'. A Latin word that dates back to the 1300s meaning ‘an abundance of writing’.
For centuries following, the word tumbled through a number of similar meanings.
That is until the 1800s, when journalism and newspapers BOOMED.
‘Copy’ (nee ‘copiae’) arrived at a meaning that sounds very familiar to us copywriters.
Written news or information used in a newspaper article or advertisem*nt.
But the term still wasn’t common in the advertising industry – yet.
Then enters the mad man, John Emory Powers (AKA the father of modern creative advertising). As the first official independent copywriter, he sold department goods and championed the fresh-from-the-womb copywriting industry. With his ground-breaking work – and the influence it had on many copywriters that came after – copy finally arrived at its modern use and meaning.
Written information that aims to inform, persuade or entertain an audience.
That brings me to this very day, as I tap away writing original copy (oh the oxymoron gets me every time!).
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Inderpreet Singh Arora
Curiosity, thoughts and conversations | LinkedIn Top Voice | Copywriter • Content Strategist • Content Consultant • Brand Consultant • Storyteller | AI, Tech, SaaS, Artificial Intelligence
1mo
This should have more views! Amazing piece of knowledge.
In amateur radio we use the word copy in voice commutation to mean "I understood what you said" and also the process of decoding Morse code. You can "hard copy" Morse code by writing down each letter or "head copy" by decoding it in you head. --... ...--
Rachel Morse
XXXXX at XXXXXX
1y
Less like copy and paste and more like copius :)
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