dictionary help| phantasmagoria | medical dictionary |
1. An optical effect produced by a magic lantern. The figures are painted in transparent colours, 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.
2. The apparatus by which such an effect is produced.
3. A medley of figures; illusive images. "This mental phantasmagoria."
Origin: NL, from Gr. A phantasm + an assembly, fr. To gather: cf. F. Phantasmagorie.
(01 Mar 1998)
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