spectacle

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spectacle

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From Middle English spectacle, from Middle French spectacle, from Latin spectāculum (“a show, spectacle”), from spectō (“to see, behold”), frequentative of speciō (“to see”). See species. Doublet of spectaculum.

• IPA^(key): /ˈspɛktəkl̩/
• Hyphenation: spec‧ta‧cle

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

spectacle (plural spectacles)

1. An exciting or extraordinary scene, exhibition, performance etc.

   The horse race was a thrilling spectacle.

   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 100, column 1:

     VVith ſcoffes and ſcornes, and contumelious taunts, / In open Market-place produc't they me, / To be a publique ſpectacle to all: / Here, ſayd they, is the Terror of the French, / The Scar-Crovv that affrights our Children ſo.

   • 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games

     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 embarrassing or unedifying scene or situation.

   He made a spectacle out of himself.

3. Attributive form of spectacles.
   • 1858 August 14, Peleg Parsley Bell, “Seeing the World. Letter No. 5. Still in London.”, in The Flag of Our Union, volume XIII, number 33, Boston, Mass.: M M Ballou, page 260, column 2:

     Some very interesting relics of Adam and Eve were shown us, that were brought from America; such as a fine-tooth comb, made of thorns, a part of a pair of leather spectacle frames, without glasses, a boot jack made of ebony, and a set of pawpaws of props, with the backs filled with a hard substance, resembling lava.

4. The brille of a snake.
5. (rail transport) A frame with different coloured lenses on a semaphore signal through which light from a lamp shines at night, often a part of the signal arm.

• (exciting event): show; pageant
• (optical instrument): glasses, eyeglasses, specs

• species
• spectacular
• speculate

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “spectacle”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• Railway semaphore signal on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “spectacle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

From Latin spectaculum, from spectare (“to look”).

• IPA^(key): /spɛk.takl/
• Hyphenation: spec‧ta‧cle

• Audio:

  (file)

spectacle m (plural spectacles)

1. a show, a spectacle, a performance, a concert

   Ils ont estimé qu'il est divertissant et qu'il se démarque nettement du spectacle actuel.

   They thought it was entertaining and that there was a clear difference between it and the current show.

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.

• s'offrir en spectacle
• se donner en spectacle

• “spectacle”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

spectacle

1. something that helps understanding
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Wyfe of Bathes Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, , →OCLC; republished in , editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, , : Iohn Reynes , 1542, →OCLC:

     Pouert a spectacle is, as thynketh me / Through which one may his very frendes se

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• English: spectacle