Other forms: edited, editing, edits
To edit is to change a picture, a film or a text after it was recorded or written. Edit the photo, edit a film, edit it down.
In film, editing is where the thing is actually made — the order and length of shots decide the pace, and a scene cut is a scene that never existed. In writing, editing covers everything from cutting to correcting, and edit it down means make it shorter. Note editor, edition, editorial; and that edit is a back-formation from editor, so the noun came first and the verb was reverse-engineered.
1verbeditTo change a picture, film or text after it was made.
“She edited the photos on her laptop to make the colours brighter.”
2nounsingleA single change, or a version.
“I made one small edit to the document, changing the date on the first page.”
edit is an act of changing.
Edit was formed backwards from editor, itself from Latin edere, to put out. English does this often — burgle from burglar, donate from donation — and the results are always resented at first.
Proto-Indo-European
*deh₃-
Latin
editus
French
éditer — edit, publish
English, today
edit
Back-formation from editor. a back-formation from editor, influenced by French éditer (“edit, publish”) and Latin editus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA