The History of Telegenic

Telegenic debuted in the 1930s, an offspring of television and photogenic, meaning "suitable for being photographed especially because of visual appeal." The word photogenic had other, more technical meanings before it developed that one in the early decades of the 20th century, but the modern meaning led to the sense of -genic that interests us here: "suitable for production or reproduction by a given medium." That sense is found in today's word, telegenic, as well as its synonym, videogenic. Telegenic may seem like a word that would primarily be used of people, but there is evidence for telegenic describing events (such as popular sports), objects, and responses. Occasionally, one even sees reference to a telegenic attitude or other intangible.