"Silver screen," a term that is now associated with classic Hollywood glamor and class, comes from a surprisingly literal and workmanlike source.

It comes from the early days of cinema, when films were projected on screens coated with metallic paint in order to reflect more light -- early cinema projectors were rather weak.

The Online Etymology Dictionary (a searchable database of words and their histories) traces this practice back to 1921, and says that the term came to be used in the "sense of 'movies generally'" in 1924.

Some of the paint used on the screens was actually silver, however moviehouse owners often opted for less-expensive aluminum paint. Screens were changed to white in subsequent years, when projectors became more powerful.

Surprisingly, though, silver screens are making a comeback, thanks to the new demands of 3-D.

Most 3-D systems in today's theaters use polarized light to produce their effect. The explanation for how and why gets pretty technical, but the interesting thing is that they also require silver- or aluminum-painted screens to work.

Back when movies were new, projectionists experimented with other screen coatings, too, including starch and gum arabic (now a popular food additive).

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