catascopic

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɒpɪk

Adjective

catascopic (comparative more catascopic, superlative most catascopic)

1. Related to spying or scouting.
   • 2011, M. Foucault, The Courage of Truth, page 171:

     To be aggelos, to be an angel, to exercise this angelic office, this catascopic office of spy and scout, he really must be free of all attachments.

2. Related to aerial photography.
   • 2013, S.A. Paspalas, L.A. Beaumont, M.C. Miller, Zagora Archaeological Project, page 12:

     New strategies were needed too, from the macroscopic (satellite imaging analysis), through the catascopic (aerial photography by kite; fig. 6, sidebar) to the microscopic (water-sieving and soil sampling [...]).

3. Of scientific forms of thinking which take wider contexts (groups, society, etc.) as a main frame of reference and study and explain individual behaviour in relationship to this broader context.

   Antonym: anascopic

   • 1980, Sociological Theories: Race and Colonialism, Unesco, page 185:

     The functionalist approach of societies is catascopic. Social phenomena are conceived of as parts of a whole that are determined by this whole.