spectrumn.
/ˈspɛktrəm/, U.S. /ˈspɛktrəm/ 1. An apparition or phantom; a spectre.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > ghost or phantom > [noun]
soulOE
huea1000
ghostOE
fantasyc1325
spiritc1350
phantomc1384
phantasmc1430
haunterc1440
shadowa1464
appearance1488
wraith1513
hag1538
spoorn1584
vizarda1591
life-in-death1593
phantasma1598
umbra1601
larve1603
spectre1605
spectrum1611
apparitiona1616
shadea1616
shapea1616
showa1616
idolum1619
larva1651
white hat?1693
zumbi1704
jumbie1764
duppy1774
waff1777
zombie1788
Wild Huntsman1796
spook1801
ghostie1810
hantua1811
preta1811
bodach1814
revenant1823
death-fetch1826
sowlth1829
haunt1843
night-bat1847
spectrality1850
thivish1852
beastie1867
ghost soul1869
barrow-wight1891
resurrect1892
waft1897
churel1901
comeback1908
1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. ix. xiv. 616/2 Walsingham hath written of a fatall Spectrum or Apparition.., where sundry monsters of diuers colours..were..seene.
1649 J. Bulwer Pathomyotomia ii. ii. 140 Feare also, and a Sudden fright or Spectrum,..hath the same effect sometimes upon the Muscles of the Face.
1684 Case of Cross in Baptism 14 Startled at Thunder, taken in a storm, frighted with a spectrum.
1706 E. Baynard Cold Baths (1709) ii. 309 He would sooner believe Witch-Craft and Spectrums.
1728 Brice's Weekly Jrnl. 19 July 1 The Maid's seeing his Spectrum, could be no..Deceptio Visus, but..was a real Apparition of the Deceased.
1809 W. Irving Hist. N.Y. II. v. vii. 67 Subject to bad dreams..in the night—when the grizly spectrum of old Kildermeester would stand centinel by his bed side.
1860 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters V. 326 (note) Fuseli may wander wildly among gray spectra, but Reynolds and Gainsborough must stay in broad daylight, with pure humanity.
2. An image or semblance. rare.
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the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > thing seen > optical illusion > [noun] > an optical illusion > vision or apparition > of person
visiona1616
spectrum1702
1702 W. Penn More Fruits of Solitude §197. 70 A Jealous Man only sees his own Spectrum, when he looks upon other Men, and gives his Character in theirs.
1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus ii. viii. 65/2 Two little visual Spectra of men, hovering..in the midst of the Unfathomable.
3. figurative.1860 J. G. Holland Miss Gilbert's Career iv. 68 All the colors of the spectrum of truth.1874 H. R. Reynolds John the Baptist viii. 453 A luminous spectrum lingers for a while in the atmosphere of Judaism.
a. The coloured band into which a beam of light is decomposed by means of a prism or diffraction grating. Also, a dark band containing bright lines produced similarly; such a (coloured or dark) band, or the pattern of lines in it, as characteristic of the light source; hence, the pattern of absorption or emission of light or other electromagnetic radiation over any range of wavelengths exhibited by a body or substance.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > [noun] > spectrum
spectrum1672
the world > matter > physics > atomic physics > decomposition of light, spectrum > [noun]
spectrum1672
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > light > chromatism > [noun] > spectrum
spectrum1672
1672 I. Newton in Philos. Trans. 1671 (Royal Soc.) 6 3076 Comparing the length of this coloured Spectrum with its breadth, I found it about five times greater.
1675 I. Newton in Philos. Trans. 1674 (Royal Soc.) 9 218 The Sunbeams..passing through a Glass Prism to the opposite Wall, exhibited there a Spectrum of divers colours.
1728 H. Pemberton View Sir I. Newton's Philos. 323 These colours shall discover themselves more perfectly..the larger the spectrum is.
1788 V. Knox Winter Evenings I. iii. 27 All the hues of the prismatic spectrum.
1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 440 It assumes an oblong shape,..and exhibits seven different colours. This oblong image is called the spectrum, and from its being produced by the prism, the prismatic spectrum.
1824 Edinb. Philos. Jrnl. 10 39 Lines are also seen in the spectrum of other fixed stars of the first magnitude.
1839 G. Bird Elements Nat. Philos. 326 The solar spectrum may therefore be regarded as composed of three spectra of equal lengths over-lapping each other.
1879 Cassell's Techn. Educator (new ed.) I. 126/1 Most of our sources of artificial light yield spectra without lines.
1879 Encycl. Brit. X. 215/1 When the light of a burning metal is examined with a properly-arranged prism, it is seen to give a dark band or spectrum which is traversed by certain vertical bright lines.
1900 Proc. Royal Soc. 1899–1900 66 45 The expected argon spectrum was almost entirely absent.
1925 G. A. Lindsay tr. M. Siegbahn Spectrosc. of X-rays vi. 195 X-ray spectra afford one of the most direct sources of information concerning the inner structure of the atom.
1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. (rev. ed.) VIII. 420/2 Microwave spectra of atoms can be used to measure..nuclear electric and magnetic moments.
1971 Physics Bull. July 401/1 The laser spectrum extends from the vacuum ultraviolet to the far infrared.
1978 J. M. Pasachoff & M. L. Kutner University Astron. xxviii. 709 All the lines in the spectrum of 3C 48 were shifted by 37 per cent, a still more astounding redshift.
b. The entire range of wavelengths (or frequencies) of electromagnetic radiation, from the longest radio waves to the shortest gamma rays of which the range of visible light is only a small part; any one part of this larger range.
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the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > [noun] > range of wavelengths
spectrum1888
1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 142/1 When a telescope is to be constructed for photographic purposes the aim should be to unite..the rays near that portion of the spectrum which act most powerfully on the photographic plate.
1923 R. Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics IV. 891/1 Beyond the photographic limit, investigation of the infra-red spectrum by means of the heating effect of the rays has been carried on.
1947 Sci. News 4 54 The wave lengths of the visible spectrum, from red over yellow, green, blue to violet, lie between 700 and 350 millionths of a millimetre.
1962 Rep. Comm. Broadcasting 1960 i. 5 in Parl. Papers 1961–2 (Cmnd. 1753) X. 259 The division by international agreement of the frequency spectrum into bands allocated to particular services forms part of the International Radio Regulations.
1978 J. M. Pasachoff & M. L. Kutner University Astron. ii. 21 The new ability that astronomers have to study parts of the electromagnetic spectrum other than light waves enables us to increase our knowledge of celestial objects manyfold.
c. An actual or notional arrangement of the component parts of any phenomenon according to frequency, energy, mass, or the like. Cf. mass spectrum n., power n.1
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the world > matter > physics > atomic physics > decomposition of light, spectrum > [noun] > of other phenomena
spectrum1887
1887 Science 11 Mar. 238/1 It is proposed to analyze a composition by forming what may be called a ‘word~spectrum’, or ‘characteristic curve’, which shall be a graphic representation of an arrangement of words according to their length and to the relative frequency of their occurrence.
1897 J. J. Thomson in London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 5th Ser. 44 297 When the cathode rays are deflected by the electrostatic field, the phosphorescent band breaks up into several bright bands separated by comparatively dark spaces; the phenomena are exactly analogous to those observed by Birkeland when the cathode rays are deflected by a magnet, and called by him the magnetic spectrum.
1933 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 142 347 A large number of experiments was made to determine the distribution of α-particles over the whole of the spectrum, which includes α-particles of ranges between 7 cm. and 12 cm.
1939 Psychol. Rec. III. 60 Fig. 1 shows the acoustic spectra of three tones of the same singer and vowel, sung at the three different intensity levels at approximately the same frequency.
1962 A. C. Gimson Introd. Pronunc. Eng. iii. 21 The spectrum above 4,000 cps would appear to be largely irrelevant to the recognition of our vowels.
1971 Nature 3 Sept. 2/2 The idea..is that even quite small explosions can be distinguished from earthquakes of comparable size by the high frequency parts of their seismic spectra.
1973 D. H. Williams & I. Fleming Spectrosc. Methods in Org. Chem. (ed. 2) iv. 181 In many cases, convenient starting points for counting the spectrum are the peaks at m/e 28 (N2+) and m/e 32 (O2+).
d. figurative. The entire range or extent of something, arranged by degree, quality, etc.
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the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > [noun] > a series or succession > long or complete > and wide-ranging
range1564
rainbow1662
band1929
spectrum1936
1936 R. Campbell Mithraic Emblems 20 Their sistered stridences ignite The spectrum of the poets' lyre.
1952 Sci. Amer. Apr. 49/3 They are known as the broad-spectrum drugs, because each of them attacks a wide range of infections.
1958 Listener 28 Aug. 308/2 At the other end of the political spectrum Lloyd Warner has used similar methods in his nostalgic account of the status system of old New England.
1964 G. L. Cohen What's Wrong with Hospitals? i. 18 Theoretically, students remain long enough on each type of ward to give them a spectrum of experience.
1971 Sci. Amer. July 25/2 At the polar ends of the age spectrum—children and ‘senior citizens’—the trends at the moment are following different courses.
1979 Pract. Woodworking Mar. 42 P—— hand tools embrace a wide spectrum of products.
4. The image retained for a time on the retina of the eye when turned away after gazing fixedly for some time at a bright coloured object.
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the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > thing seen > [noun] > (retained) visual image
spectrum1786
photogene1864
negative after-image1870
incidental images1876
optogram1878
1786 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 76 313 This appearance in the eye we shall call the ocular spectrum of that object.
1829 Nat. Philos. (Libr. Useful Knowl.) I. Optics xvii. 46 One of the most curious affections of the eye, is that in virtue of which it sees what are called ocular spectra, or accidental colours.
1839 G. Bird Elements Nat. Philos. 398 Thus wafers, or other coloured objects, produce spectra of colours complementary to their own.
1854 Lardner's Museum Sci. & Art I. 85 Unreal objects will often be perceived. These are called spectra.
1854 Lardner's Museum Sci. & Art I. 85 This object is an optical spectrum.
5. Entomology. A spectre-insect (Phasma).
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > subclass Pterygota > [noun] > division Exopterygota or Hemimetabola > order Phasmida > family Phasmidae
walking stick1760
leaf insect1795
spectre1798
stick insect1826
spectrum1838
phasmid1864
stick bug1868
twig insect1882
witch's horse1894
1838 Murray's N. Germany 34 The minerals and insects are also good; among the latter are various specimens of spectrum, nearly a foot long.
6. Mathematics. (See quots.)
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the world > relative properties > number > arithmetic or algebraic operations > transformation > [noun] > set or values in
image1888
inverse image1932
preimage1942
spectrum1948
1948 P. R. Halmos Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces ii. 79 The set on n proper values of A, with multiplicities properly counted, is the spectrum of A.
1972 A. G. Howson Handbk. Terms Algebra & Anal. xvii. 83 The set of all eigenvalues of a linear transformation t of a finite-dimensional vector space V is known as the spectrum of t.
7. attributive (in sense 3):
a. spectrum analysis n. (cf. spectral adj. Compounds). Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > science of colour > [noun] > spectrology or spectroscopy
spectrology1862
spectrum analysis1866
spectroscopy1870
the world > matter > physics > atomic physics > decomposition of light, spectrum > [noun] > analysis by means of
spectrum analysis1866
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > light > chromatism > [noun] > spectrum > analysis using
spectrum analysis1866
1866 E. Atkinson tr. A. Ganot Elem. Treat. Physics 425 The method of spectrum-analysis is most readily applied to the alkaline metals.
1870 F. W. Farrar Families of Speech ii. 53 The microscope and spectrum analysis of Philology.
1871 tr. H. Schellen Spectrum Anal. Pref. 4 The great merit of the book as a popular treatise on Spectrum Analysis.
b. Miscellaneous, as spectrum allocation, spectrum-band, spectrum-line, spectrum microscope, spectrum photography, spectrum work.
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1871 tr. H. Schellen Spectrum Anal. 101 The number of the spectrum-lines of a substance.
1871 tr. H. Schellen Spectrum Anal. 456 Qualitative Analysis..by means of the spectrum microscope.
1889 Internat. Ann. Anthonys Photogr. Bull. 389 The bath plate is less suitable for spectrum photography.
1891 Internat. Ann. Anthonys Photogr. Bull. 357 The yet hardly visible spectrum band.
1899 Lockyer in Daily News 13 Nov. 6/7 For this spectrum work very rapid isochromatic plates..should be employed.
1960 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XI. 260/1 (caption) Radio spectrum allocations.
1980 Sci. Amer. Feb. 32/1 The control of interference lies at the heart of spectrum allocation, which entails the development of systematic plans for the use of frequencies in radio communication.
8. spectrum analyser n. a device which analyses a system of oscillations into its spectral components.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electronics > electronic devices or components > electronic instruments > [noun] > device analysing oscillations
spectrum analyser1942
1942 Radiation Lab. (Mass. Inst. Technol.) Man. No. m–115 (title) Spectrum analyzer (Type 103) for pulsed oscillators at 3,000 Mc/sec.
1973 Times 14 Dec. 8/8 So far they had spent 150 man-hours in preliminary work, setting up ‘spectrum analysers, computers, graphical displays and other advanced equipment’.
Draft additions March 2017
on the spectrum.
a. Diagnosed with or having the characteristics of an autism spectrum disorder (see autism n. 2).
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1992 Current Opinion Pediatrics 4 616/1 Few data are available on the ‘other’ PDDs [= pervasive developmental disorders] (ie, those on the spectrum of autistic disabilities).]
1996 Nursing Standard 9 Oct. 36/1 Four times more boys than girls are affected, and..three quarters of those on the spectrum have additional learning difficulties.
1999 J. Singer in M. Corker & S. French Disability Disc. vii. 66 It is interesting to speculate to what extent computers..were developed by people on the spectrum as meeting a communicative need of their own.
2004 A. Morton-Cooper Health Care & Autism Spectrum ii. 39 Children on the spectrum can be extremely sensitive to tensions in the atmosphere.
2016 Manch. Evening News (Nexis) 20 Sept. 9 A Facebook page..to share tips and advice..about how to deal with a child who is on the spectrum.
b. colloquial (and potentially offensive even when used without derogatory intent): displaying any of various traits which might be considered suggestive of autism, such as awkwardness in social situations, restricted interests, or repetitive patterns of behaviour. Cf. autistic adj. 2b.
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2012 Metro 14 May (London ed.) (Metro Life section) 34/3 He gets excited.., raving over each snare detail or sample. ‘Yeah, I seem to be slightly on the spectrum,’ he smiles.
2014 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 14 June 24 The longer I live, the more I realise everything can be explained when you remember that nearly all men are..a little bit on the spectrum.
2015 Lancaster Guardian (Nexis) 31 May She had made offensive tweets about Ed Miliband and how he was on the spectrum.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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