What is the earliest use of the word "content" as a noun in the sense of "content producer" or "creative content"?
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According to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, the first documented use of "content" as a noun with the sense of "something contained" is in the 15th century.
ScotM
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Is this really what broadcasting executives have in mind when they use the word? – Tim Lymington Dec 20 '14 at 23:15
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3Who says they have anything in mind? "Content" is what's on the screen, whatever it is, and its only important characteristic is that somebody's being paid to put it there. – John Lawler Dec 20 '14 at 23:33
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I commented on my thoughts about the use of content to mean part of a whole on tchrist's answer. – Hamhot Ptonel Dec 21 '14 at 01:06
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The OED has content as a noun as early as the 1500s:
- 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 6 b, ― All this worlde with the contentes in the same.
- 1547 Boorde Brev. Health lxxiii. 23 ― Yf in an urine doo appere a content lyke as heares were chopped in it.
However, your particular sense might be the one first shown in 1901:
- 1901 Chemist & Druggist LVIII. 18 ― Jeancard and Satie··conclude that altitude has no influence upon the ester content of lavender oil.
There are also earlier uses, but that looks to be the best match for what you mean.
- 1539 Bible (Great) title-p., ― The Byble in Englyshe, that is to saye the content of all the holy Scrypture, bothe of yᵉ olde and newe testament.
- 1594 Plat Jewell-ho., Diuers Chim. Concl. 28 ― A glasse··of some greater content.
- 1660 Barrow Euclid i. prop. 35 schol., ― The area or content of the Rectangle.
- 1863 Huxley Man’s Place Nat. ii. 77 ― The most capacious Gorilla skull yet measured has a content of not more than 34½ cubic inches.
tchrist
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I don't think that use is quite the same. In that use "ester content" is "the amount of water in the lavender oil." "Multimedia content" is not the amount of multimedia in the X, because there is no "whole." Please correct me if my language is off. – Hamhot Ptonel Dec 21 '14 at 01:00
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1@HamhotPtonel: I think you're being overly literal, and overly restrictive. The contents of a bottle are whatever is contained within it. The contents of a publication are whatever is contained within it (as in "table of contents"). The only difference in the usage you're citing is the use of content, singular... and I think that's just a matter of industry jargon which has since become widesperead. There really isn't anything deeply significant, or surprising, about this. – keshlam Dec 21 '14 at 03:09