phantasmagoria
[fan-taz-muh-gawr-ee-uh, -gohr-]
- a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination.
- a changing scene made up of many elements.
- an optical illusion produced by a magic lantern or the like in which figures increase or diminish in size, pass into each other, dissolve, etc.
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Origin of phantasmagoria
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for phantasmagoria
Historical Examples
Was the bear merely a part of the phantasmagoria of an enchanted region?
Peak and PrairieAnna Fuller
The rest of that luncheon-party was a phantasmagoria of faces and voices to poor Nelly.
Mary GrayKatharine Tynan
They rose and eddied through his mind like the phantasmagoria of a dream.
Fashion and FamineAnn S. Stephens
He suspected Gordon, and as for the phantasmagoria of last night, he could make nothing of it.
The MercenaryW. J. Eccott
It is one of those memories that enter into the phantasmagoria of the night.
The Wasted GenerationOwen Johnson
phantasmagoria
phantasmagory (fænˈtæzməɡərɪ)
- psychol a shifting medley of real or imagined figures, as in a dream
- films a sequence of pictures made to vary in size rapidly while remaining in focus
- rare a shifting scene composed of different elements
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Word Origin
C19: probably from French fantasmagorie production of phantasms, from phantasm + -agorie, perhaps from Greek ageirein to gather together
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for phantasmagoria
n.
1802, name of a "magic lantern" exhibition brought to London in 1802 by Parisian showman Paul de Philipstal, the name an alteration of French phantasmagorie, said to have been coined 1801 by French dramatist Louis-Sébastien Mercier as though to mean "crowd of phantoms," from Greek phantasma "image, phantom, apparition" (see phantasm) + second element probably a French form of Greek agora "assembly" (but this may have been chosen more for the dramatic sound than any literal sense). Transferred meaning "shifting scene of many elements" is attested from 1822. Related: Phantasmagorical.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
phantasmagoria
(făn-tăz′mə-gôr′ē-ə)- A fantastic sequence of haphazardly associative imagery, as seen in dreams or fever.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.