Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A camera that develops its own film.
  • noun A print from such a camera.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Genericization of the trademark Polaroid.

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Examples

  • November 25th, 2008 at 8:52 am lease homes nottely lake direct sales training bloomingdale il schools with kitt in the name polaroid pdc 3030 review apartment rental oswego new york george bissett elementary school the masseuse vivid video vengasupri Says:

    Matthew Yglesias » Articles 2004

  • Guests find out their fix-up on the way out with a favor envelope holding the name and polaroid of their potential paramour.

    The Swell Dressed Party Cynthia Rowley 2005

  • Guests find out their fix-up on the way out with a favor envelope holding the name and polaroid of their potential paramour.

    The Swell Dressed Party Cynthia Rowley 2005

  • My favourite part of it is the polaroid, which is still in a good shape after all these years.

    Saudi Jeans 2010

  • I was shooting digital as only a "polaroid" to save on 35mm usage.

    combined Amateur Traveler travel podcast feed 2010

  • He suggests a novel alternative that he describes as "polaroid" windows, hovering image snapshots that can be used to see parts of other images while you are working.

    Ars Technica 2010

  • He suggests a novel alternative that he describes as "polaroid" windows, hovering image snapshots that can be used to see parts of other images while you are working.

    Ars Technica 2010

  • Since Polaroid film has been canceled in making, does that mean there's no kind of polaroid film left?

    Yahoo! Answers: Latest Questions 2009

  • This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras.

    Jobs: 'Find What You Love' 2011

  • Erik Brunetti, proprietor of the FUCT clothing and as early a developer/proponent of what is now termed "Street Art" as exists, is shopping his polaroid portrait of the now-legendary stenciler shot in the early 1990s at Slam City Skates, the then-UK distributor for Bruneti's influential streetwear label.

    Mat Gleason: January '11 L.A. Art World Gossip Mat Gleason 2011

Comments

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  • “The demise of Polaroid’s instant film cameras has been coming for years. Digital technology did it in. The decision this year by the company that Edwin Land founded to stop manufacturing the film has left devotees who grew up with Polaroid’s palm-size white-bordered prints bereft. They have signed up in the thousands as members of SavePolaroid.com. Digital cameras that print instant pictures have materialized to fill the void, providing a practical substitute. But as in most affairs of the heart, logic is beside the point.�?

    — Michael Kimmelman, ‘The Polaroid: Imperfect, Yet Magical’, The New York Times (27 December 2008).

    December 28, 2008

  • Another usage on Muxtape. See also Poladroid.

    "What makes the Polaroid picture special—and suddenly so resonant—is the way its formal qualities dovetail with the mechanics of memory.... For much of its history, photography marked the moments sporadically (each roll of film contained a limited number of images) or abstractly (in black and white); we were required to exercise our mnemonic muscles by supplying the color or recalling the context. But digital photography rewrote the rules, parceling out the past in a flood of images that are as detailed and consecutive as our devices allow.... The Polaroid serves as a palpable reminder of the pleasures of good old-fashioned remembering. For one thing, it materializes in real time, making it the only form of photography that transcends mere documentation to become part of the moment it's meant to preserve; we blow out the candles, look at the Polaroid, and archive both experiences as one.... Polaroids inadvertently warp, and thus estheticize, every moment they capture... Polaroids look like memories—imperfect and incomplete, but somehow realer for it."

    —Andrew Romano, "Instant Karma," Newsweek, July 27, 2009

    July 24, 2009