panopticon

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πᾶν (pân, “all”) + ὀπτικός (optikós, “visible”). Coined by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in 1791.

Noun

panopticon (plural panopticons)

1. A type of prison where all the cells are visible from the center, particularly if it is not possible for someone in a cell to know if they are being watched.
2. A room for the exhibition of novelties.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:panopticon.

Translations

type of prison

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 圓形監獄, 圆形监狱 (yuánxíng jiānyù)

• Finnish: panoptikon (fi)
• French: panoptique (fr) m, panopticon (fr) m
• German: Panoptikum (de) n

• Greek: πανοπτικό n (panoptikó)
• Japanese: パノプティコン (panoputikon)
• Polish: panoptikon m
• Portuguese: panóptico m
• Russian: пано́птикум (ru) m (panóptikum)
• Spanish: panóptico m

room for the exhibition of novelties

• Bulgarian: паноптикум m (panoptikum)
• Finnish: panoptikon (fi)
• German: Panoptikum (de) n

• Japanese: パノプティコン (panoputikon)
• Polish: panoptikum (pl) n
• Russian: пано́птикум (ru) m (panóptikum)