the.com/videotape

means A magnetic tape used to record and play back video and audio, the dominant format for home and broadcast recording before digital video took over.

from A straightforward compound: 'video,' from Latin videre 'to see,' was already in use for television picture signals by the mid-20th century; 'tape' goes back to Old English tæppa, a narrow strip of cloth, extended over time to any thin ribbon-like material. Once engineers figured out how to encode picture and sound as magnetic patterns on plastic ribbon (building on audio tape recording), 'videotape' simply named the thing — see-tape, plainly put.