panopticon

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek "-opticon" for "observe" and "pan-" for "all".

Noun

panopticon (plural panopticons)

1. A type of prison designed by philosopher Jeremy Bentham wherein all the cells are visible from the center of the building. It engenders a feeling of being watched.
2. A room for the exhibition of novelties.

Translations

type of prison

• Chinese:

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

• Finnish: panoptikon
• French: panoptique (fr) m, panopticon m

• German: Panoptikum (de) n
• Japanese: パノプティコン (panoputikon)
• Portuguese: panóptico m
• Russian: пано́птикум (ru) m (panóptikum)

room for the exhibition of novelties

• Finnish: panoptikon
• German: Panoptikum (de) n

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

Quotations

• For usage examples of this term, see Citations:panopticon.