phantasmagoria

English

WOTD – 9 September 2006

From French phantasmagorie, from Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phántasma, “ghost”) + possibly either ἀγορά (agorá, “assembly, gathering”) + the suffix -ia or ἀγορεύω (agoreúō, “to speak publicly”).

phantasmagoria (plural phantasmagorias)

(historical) A popular 18th- and 19th-century form of theater entertainment whereby ghostly apparitions are formed.
Synonym: magic lantern
A series of events involving rapid changes in light intensity and color.
A dreamlike state where real and imagined elements are blurred together.
- 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:
  this mental phantasmagoria
- 1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life Chapter V
  It is impossible to convey, in words, any idea of the hideous phantasmagoria of shifting limbs and faces which moved through the evil-smelling twilight of this terrible prison-house. Callot might have drawn it, Dante might have suggested it, but a minute attempt to describe its horrors would but disgust. There are depths in humanity which one cannot explore, as there are mephitic caverns into which one dare not penetrate.

a series of events

a dreamlike state