compression

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French compression, from Latin compressiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɒm.pɹɛʃ.ən/

• Audio (southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛʃən

Noun

compression (countable and uncountable, plural compressions)

1. An increase in density; the act of compressing, or the state of being compressed; compaction.
2. (automotive) The cycle of an internal combustion engine during which the fuel and air mixture is compressed.
3. (computing) The process by which data is compressed.
   • 2011, Marcelo A. Montemurro & Damián H. Zanette, “Universal Entropy of Word Ordering Across Linguistic Families”, in PLoS ONE‎^[1], retrieved 2012-09-26:

     Due to the presence of long-range correlations in language [21], [22] it is not possible to compute accurate measures of the entropy by estimating block probabilities directly. More efficient nonparametric methods that work even in the presence of long-range correlations are based on the property that the entropy of a sequence is a lower bound to any lossless compressed version of it [15]. Thus, in principle, it is possible to estimate the entropy of a sequence by finding its length after being compressed by an optimal algorithm. In our analysis, we used an efficient entropy estimator derived from the Lempel-Ziv compression algorithm that converges to the entropy [19], [23], [24], and shows a robust performance when applied to correlated sequences [25] (see Materials and Methods).

4. (music) The electronic process by which any sound's gain is automatically controlled.
5. (astronomy) The deviation of a heavenly body from a spherical form.

Antonyms

• decompression
• rarefaction

Derived terms

• age compression
• compression fracture
• compression pump
• compression ratio
• compression release
• compression set
• compression shorts
• compression sock
• compression wave
• compression wood
• data compression
• effective compression
• globe of compression
• selective compression
• time-space compression

 

Translations

the act of compressing

• Bulgarian: свиване (bg) n (svivane), сгъстяване (bg) n (sgǎstjavane)
• Catalan: compressió (ca) f
• Czech: stlačení n, komprese f
• Danish: kompression c, komprimering c, sammenpresning c
• Dutch: compressie (nl) f, comprimering
• Finnish: puristaminen (fi)
• Georgian: კუმშვა (ḳumšva), შეკუმშვა (šeḳumšva)
• German: Kompression (de) f, Komprimierung f
• Indonesian: kompresi (id)
• Italian: compressione (it) f
• Maori: kо̄peketanga
• Polish: kompresja (pl) f
• Portuguese: compressão (pt) f, compactação f
• Russian: сжа́тие (ru) n (sžátije)
• Tagalog: tipil
• Turkish: sıkıştırma (tr), deriştirme

the cycle of an internal combustion engine during which the fuel and air mixture is compressed

• Bulgarian: компресия (bg) f (kompresija)
• Catalan: compressió (ca) f
• Danish: kompression c
• Dutch: compressie (nl) f
• Finnish: puristus (fi)
• German: Kompression (de)
• Italian: compressione (it) f
• Polish: sprężenie n, kompresja (pl) f
• Portuguese: compressão (pt) f
• Russian: сжа́тие (ru) n (sžátije)
• Tagalog: tipil
• Turkish: kompresyon

(computing) the process by which data is compressed

• Bulgarian: компресиране n (kompresirane)
• Dutch: comprimering
• French: compression (fr) f
• Georgian: შეკუმშვა (šeḳumšva)
• German: Komprimierung f
• Greek: συμπίεση (el) f (sympíesi)
• Icelandic: þjöppun f
• Italian: compressione (it) f
• Polish: kompresja (pl) f
• Portuguese: compressão (pt) f, compactação f
• Russian: сжа́тие (ru) n (sžátije)
• Swedish: komprimering (sv) c, kompression (sv) c
• Turkish: sıkıştırma (tr)

(music) the electronic process by which any sound's gain is automatically controlled

• Bulgarian: компреси́ране n (kompresírane)
• Dutch: compressie (nl) f
• Portuguese: compressão (pt) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: comprimering
• French: ^{(please verify)} compression (fr), ^{(please verify)} réduction (fr), ^{(please verify)} concision (fr)
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} compresión (es) f

References

• Compression in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

French

Etymology

First known attestation 1314, borrowed from Latin compressiōnem.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

compression f (plural compressions)

1. compression (act, instance of compressing)
2. compression (cycle of an internal combustion engine)

Further reading

• “compression”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle French

Etymology

Old French, borrowed from Latin compressiō.

Noun

compression f (plural compressions)

1. compression (act, instance of compressing)
   • 1585, Giovanni Marinelli, Thresor des remedes secrets pour les maladies des femmes, page 761:

     compression du ventre

     compression of the abdomen

Old French

Etymology

First known attestation 1314, borrowed from Latin compressiō.

Noun

compression f (oblique plural compressions, nominative singular compression, nominative plural compressions)

1. compression (act, instance of compressing)