spectacle

English

Wikipedia

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French spectacle, from Latin spectaculum (“a show, spectacle”), from spectare (“to see, behold”), frequentative of specere (“to see”); see species.

Noun

spectacle (plural spectacles)

1. Something exhibited to view; usually, something presented to view as extraordinary, or as unusual and worthy of special notice; a remarkable or noteworthy sight; a show; a pageant
   • 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games[1]

     In movie terms, it suggests Paul Verhoeven in Robocop/Starship Troopers mode, an R-rated bloodbath where the grim spectacle of children murdering each other on television is bread-and-circuses for the age of reality TV, enforced by a totalitarian regime to keep the masses at bay.

2. An exciting exhibition, performance or event.
3. An embarrassing situation

   He made a spectacle out of himself

4. (usually in the plural) An optical instrument consisting of two lenses set in a light frame, and worn to assist sight, to obviate some defect in the organs of vision, or to shield the eyes from bright light.
5. (figuratively) An aid to the intellectual sight.
   • Chaucer

     Poverty a spectacle is, as thinketh me, Through which he may his very friends see.

6. (obsolete) A spyglass; a looking-glass.

Synonyms

• (optical instrument): glasses, eyeglasses, specs

Related terms

• species
• spectacular
• speculate

Translations

something exhibited to view

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 場面 (cmn), 场面 (cmn) (chǎngmiàn), 奇觀 (cmn), 奇观 (cmn) (qíguān)

• Czech: podívaná (cs) f
• Dutch: spektakel (nl) n
• Esperanto: spektaklo (eo)
• Finnish: näytelmä (fi), näky (fi), spektaakkeli (fi)
• French: spectacle (fr) m
• German: Spektakel (de) m, Schauspiel (de) n

• Hungarian: látvány (hu), látnivaló (hu), látványosság (hu)
• Japanese: 壮観 (ja) (そうかん, sōkan), 光景 (ja) (こうけい, kōkei)
• Portuguese: espetáculo (pt) m, show (pt) m, mostra (pt) f
• Romanian: spectacol (ro) n
• Russian: зрелище (ru) (zrélišče) n, спектакль (ru) (spektákl’) m, представление (ru) (predstavlénije) n
• Spanish: espectáculo (es) m

optical instrument — see spectacles

aid to intellectual sight

• Finnish: silmälasit (fi), peili (fi)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Portuguese: espectáculo m
• Vietnamese: cảnh tượng, cảnh tượng, sự trình diễn, sự biểu diễn, kính

External links

• spectacle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• spectacle in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

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French

Etymology

From Latin spectaculum, from spectare "to look".

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Noun

spectacle m (plural spectacles)

1. a show, a spectacle, a performance, a concert
2. a sight, a showing, a display

   Devant un tel spectacle ils se jetèrent à genoux pleurant les morts de leurs compatriotes. — They went down on their knees crying for the deaths of their fellow countrymen at this atrocious sight.