phantasmagoria love

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A fantastic sequence of haphazardly associative imagery, as seen in dreams or fever.
  • noun A constantly changing scene composed of numerous elements.
  • noun Fantastic imagery as represented in art.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A fantastic series or medley of illusive or terrifying figures or images.
  • noun Specifically
  • noun An exhibition of images or pictures by the agency of light and shadow, as by the magic lantern or the stereopticon; especially, such an exhibition so arranged by a combination of two lanterns or lenses that every view dissolves or merges gradually into the next.
  • noun The apparatus by means of which such an exhibition is produced; a magic lantern or a stereopticon.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An optical effect produced by a magic lantern. The figures are painted in transparent colors, and all the rest of the glass is opaque black. The screen is between the spectators and the instrument, and the figures are often made to appear as in motion, or to merge into one another.
  • noun The apparatus by which such an effect is produced.
  • noun Fig.: A medley of figures; illusive images.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A popular 18th- and 19th-century form of theatre entertainment whereby ghostly apparitions are formed; a magic lantern.
  • noun A series of events involving rapid changes in light intensity and colour.
  • noun A dreamlike state where real and imagined elements are blurred together.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a constantly changing medley of real or imagined images (as in a dream)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of obsolete French phantasmagorie, art of creating supernatural illusions : perhaps fantasme, illusion (from Old French; see phantasm) + allégorie, allegory, allegorical visual representation (from Old French, allegory, from Latin allēgoria; see allegory).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phantasma, "ghost") + αγορευειν (agoreuein, "to speak publicly")

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Examples

Comments

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  • A nice word to upset others in converse; they have heard the word, but don't know the meaning, and thus nod along trying to avoid using it.

    September 14, 2007

  • *nodding*

    September 14, 2007

  • My favorite usage: Steven Pinker's

    "the half-million-word phantasmagoria of the English language."

    October 12, 2007

  • Also the title of a dodgy eighties goth-rock album by The Damned.

    October 12, 2007

  • 'The monotonous rocking fo the boat, and the murmur of the water, had somewhat stupefied the unhappy Claude. When the boatman had left him, he remained standing stupidly upon the bank, staring straight before him, and seeing everything in a sort of tremulous mist, which made all seem like a phantasmagoria.'

    -The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo

    June 8, 2010

  • I have mostly phantasmagoric dreams...

    December 11, 2011