Vocab: Phantasmagoria

Have you ever experienced phantasmagoria? This type of experience could be both exciting and frightening at the same time.

Dictionary

Phantasmagoria - a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination.

The idea of creating illusions started with the idea of a “magic lantern” created in the 17^th century by both Athanasius Kircher and Christiaan Huygens – in separate instances. This lantern consisted of a candle and concave mirror.

Etymology

Invented in France in the late 18^th century and continued to gain popularity throughout Europe. Huygens' magic lantern has been described as the predecessor of today's slide projector and the forerunner of the motion picture projector. Images were hand painted onto the glass slide until the mid-19th century when photographic slides were employed.

Use in a sentence

During my fit of ague, I experienced phantasmagoria.

Her dreams that night showed a phantasmagoria from scenes of her car wreck.

Resources

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Phantasmagoria

http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=phantasmagoria

http://wordsmith.org/words/phantasmagoria.html