panorama
/panəˈrɑːmə
/- As I climbed up onto the wall and took a seat, the sparkling panorama surrounding me took my breath away.
- This opens up a fine panorama of the surrounding hill country, with peak upon peak now in sight.
- Stairs in the kiosk led us up to a viewing platform that afforded us a wonderful panorama of the Mima prairie.
Synonyms
- Not even the camera and its glass plate photography could compare with Holmes's panoramas drawn with such meticulous detail.
- The circle and arrow overlaid on the entrance portion of the Trout Cave map below shows the approximate camera location and initial direction of view for the panorama.
- The final gallery in the museum is the largest, presenting a sweeping panorama of American art from about 1870 through 1910.
- If one surveys the panorama of today's international left, Allende's legacy occasionally flashes and flourishes.
- Also, attempts are being made to present a panorama from ‘Folk to Pop’ and music of all ages to enthral the audience.
Synonyms
Origin
Late 18th century: from pan- 'all' + Greek horama 'view' (from horan 'see').
In 1787 the painter Robert Barker invented the panorama, a spectacular method for presenting a large painting of a landscape or other scene. It could either be arranged on the inside of a cylinder and viewed from the inside, or be unrolled and made to pass in front of the viewer to show the various parts in succession. The first such picture was of a view of Edinburgh. By the early 1800s panorama had come into wider use as ‘a complete and comprehensive survey or presentation of a subject’, and ‘an unbroken view of the whole region surrounding an observer’. Barker formed the word from Greek pan ‘all’ and horama ‘view’. The cinematic term pan for a shot following someone or showing surrounding views is a shortening of panorama.