SPECTACLEとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From 中期英語 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.

発音

• IPA: /ˈspɛktəkl̩/
• ハイフネーション: spec‧ta‧cle

名詞

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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene vi], 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[1]

     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[aturin] M[urray] 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.

同意語

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

派生語

• bespectacled
• counterspectacle
• make a public spectacle of oneself
• make a spectacle of oneself
• spectacle case
• spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch
• superspectacle

関連する語

• species
• spectacular
• speculate

Further reading

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] 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.

派生した語

• English: spectacle