kaleidoscope

kaleidoscope
\ \ [19] Greek kalós meant ‘beautiful’ (it was related to Sanskrit kalyāna ‘beautiful’). It has given English a number of compound words: calligraphy [17], for instance, etymologically ‘beautiful writing’, callipygian [18], ‘having beautiful buttocks’, and callisthenics [19], literally ‘beauty and strength’.
\ \ The Scottish physicist Sir David Brewster used it, along with Greek eidos ‘shape’ and the element -scope denoting ‘observation instrument’, to name a device he invented in 1817 for looking at rotating patterns of coloured glass – a ‘beautiful-shape viewer’.
\ \ Cf.⇒ CALLIGRAPHY, CALLISTHENICS

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • kaléidoscope — [ kaleidɔskɔp ] n. m. VAR. caléidoscope • 1818 fig.; angl. kaleidoscope (1817), du gr. kalos « beau », eîdos « aspect » et skopein « regarder », cf. scope 1 ♦ Petit instrument cylindrique, dont le fond est occupé par des fragments mobiles de… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Kaleidoscope — puede referirse a las siguientes acepciones: Música Kaleidoscope: grupo musical estadounidense de Acid folk, popular en los años 60. Kaleidoscope: grupo musical inglés de folk rock, popular en los años 60. Kaleidoscope: álbum de Siouxsie the… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Kaleidoscope — студийный альбом Siouxsie and the Banshees Дата выпуска 1 августа 1980 Жанр …   Википедия

  • Kaleidoscope — (englisch für Kaleidoskop) ist: Kaleidoscope (US Band), eine US amerikanische Rockband der 1960er Jahre Kaleidoscope (Britische Band), eine britische Rockband der 1960er Jahre Kaleidoscope (Album), ein Album der US amerikanischen R B Sängerin… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Kaleidoscope — Ka*lei do*scope, n. [Gr. ? beautiful + e i^dos form + scope.] An instrument invented by Sir David Brewster, which contains loose fragments of colored glass, etc., and reflecting surfaces so arranged that changes of position exhibit its contents… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • kaléidoscope — KALÉIDOSCOPE: Ne s emploie qu à propos des salons de peinture …   Dictionnaire des idées reçues

  • kaleidoscope — 1817, lit. observer of beautiful forms, coined by its inventor, Scottish scientist David Brewster (1781 1868), from Gk. kalos beautiful + eidos shape (see OID (Cf. oid)) + SCOPE (Cf. scope), on model of TELESCOPE (Cf. telescope), etc. They sold… …   Etymology dictionary

  • kaleidoscope — ► NOUN 1) a toy consisting of a tube containing mirrors and pieces of coloured glass or paper, whose reflections produce changing patterns when the tube is rotated. 2) a constantly changing pattern or sequence. DERIVATIVES kaleidoscopic adjective …   English terms dictionary

  • kaleidoscope — [kə lī′də skōp΄] n. [< Gr kalos, beautiful + eidos, form (see OID) + SCOPE] 1. a tubular instrument containing loose bits of colored glass, plastic, etc. reflected by mirrors so that various symmetrical patterns appear when the tube is held to …   English World dictionary

  • Kaléidoscope — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Kaléidoscope (homonymie). Vue à travers un kaléidoscope. Le kaléidoscope est un tube de miroirs réfléchissant à l infini et en …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Kaleidoscope — A kaleidoscope is a tube of mirrors containing loose colored beads, pebbles or other small colored objects. The viewer looks in one end and light enters the other end, reflecting off the mirrors. Typically there are two rectangular lengthwise… …   Wikipedia

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