It seems likely due to the camera shutter being an analogue of a window
shutter, which is opened and closed to control light entering a room. Now
the origin of that usage... sorry, I don't have my Shorter Oxford at hand.
Michael
On 1/17/09 1:00 PM, Frank van Lindert wrote:
> Forgive me for becoming a bit philosophical, but today - when reading
> about anonymizing, obscuring, and obfuscating - another language
> question came up.
>
> Why is the opening-and-closing system of a camera lens called a
> shutter in English?
>
> In Dutch and French I see the same phenomenon: 'sluiter' and
> 'obturateur' are the words for shutter, but here also there is no
> reference to the opening part of the mechanism...
>
> In German one always speaks of 'Auslöser' which means more or less
> 'release'. Which actually is a different thing altogether.
>
> I am really in the dark now and hope someone can shed some light. ;-)
>
>
> Frank van Lindert
> Utrecht NL
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