This week's theme
Illustrated words

This week's words
bursiform
concinnity
lachrymal
wassail
phantasmagoria


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Words derived from numbers

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(fan-taz-muh-GOR-ee-uh)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A shifting scene made up of many elements.
2. A sequence of fantastic imagery, illusions, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French fantasmagorie, from fantasme (phantasm), perhaps combined with Greek agora (assembly). Earliest documented use: 1802.

NOTES:

In the late 18th and 19th century, use of a magic lantern (an early form of slide projector) to display fantastic images was popular. It was known as a phantasmagoria and was first exhibited in London in 1802.

USAGE:

"We are increasingly immersed in a phantasmagoria of screens and streams and tunes."
Tom & Jeanne Lombardo; Mind Flight: A Journey Into the Future; Xlibris; 2011.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: