DOC, DOCU-

combining forms (Lifestyle and Leisure) Parts of the word documentary, used in docudrama (also called dramadoc or drama-doc) and docutainment to show that a film or entertainment contains an element of documentary (or at least that real events have formed the basis for it). Etymology: Doc, which also exists as a free-standing colloquial abbreviation of documentary, is used as the second part of an abbreviated compound; when the documentary element comes first, the -u- is kept as a link vowel. History and Usage: The dramatized documentary (dramadoc, docudrama) suddenly became a fashionable form of television entertainment at the end of the seventies in the US, and this was a fashion which lasted through the eighties both in the US and in the UK. The proportions of fact and dramatic licence in these programmes is variable, whereas the docutainment (a word which dates from the late seventies and appears to be a Canadian coinage) is more likely to be factual, but designed both to inform and entertain: compare infotainment (at info-). This two-part production about the life and times of Douglas MacArthur is no docudrama. It is instead a documentary or, more precisely, five hours of 'docutainment', a fascinating...biography based on William Manchester's book about America's most intriguing, epic soldier. Los Angeles Times 3 Mar. 1985, p. 3 While the film is not a 'docu-drama', immense pains have been taken to achieve authenticity. Daily Telegraph 8 Mar. 1990, p. 18 See also faction