The story
Blend of camera + recorder. Appears to be a borrowing from Japanese カムコーダー (kamukōdā), an original registered trademark filed for by Sony in 1981. First use appears c. 1982 in The Economist.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
camcorder
Today it means: A camera recorder: a portable electronic device for recording images and audio on to a storage device, hence functioning as a camera and a recorder in a single unit. Full definition →