Photographic means to do with photographs, or as exact as one. Photographic equipment, photographic evidence, a photographic memory.
Photographic memory in the strict sense — reading a page from memory — has never been demonstrated under controlled conditions, though some people do have remarkable recall. Photographic evidence carries weight in court and is easier to fake than it used to be.
1adjectivephotographicTo do with photographs, or as exact as one.
“The shop sells cameras, lenses, tripods and other photographic equipment.”
photographic is a quality of exactness.
Photograph plus -ic, from Greek phos, light, plus graphein, to draw.
Proto-Indo-European
*gerbʰ-
Ancient Greek
γραφικός — belonging to painting or drawing, picturesque, of or for writing; of style, lively
Latin
graphicus — belonging to painting or drawing
English
graphic
English, today
photographic
Built from
From photo- + -graphic. From photo- + -graphic or photograph + -ic. graphic comes from Latin graphicus (“belonging to painting or drawing”), from Ancient Greek γραφικός (“belonging to painting or drawing, picturesque, of or for writing; of style, lively”), from γραφή (“drawing, painting, writing, a writing, description, etc.”), from γράφω (“scratch, carve”) (cognate with English carve).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA