Phantasmagoric

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A rapidly shifting sequence of dreamlike images or scenes that are bizarre, disorienting, and often surreal in nature
2. Characterized by a dizzying succession of strange, dreamlike, and surreal images or scenes that shift rapidly and disorient the viewer
3. Displaying a kaleidoscopic sequence of bizarre, hallucinatory, and fantastical elements that blend together in a confusing and otherworldly manner

Etymology: Phantasmagoria was the name of a late eighteenth-century stage show in which audiences watched ghostly figures glide toward them out of the dark. The word itself traces back to the Greek "phantasma," meaning an apparition or image, and was later combined with "agora" (assembly, or in the sense of a gathering-place) to form the stem that gave the show its name. Showmen such as Étienne-Gaspard Robert, known as Robertson, used magic lanterns mounted on movable carriages so that the projected images seemed to grow larger or smaller and drift forward and back, which is where the word's sense of rapid, disorienting change began. The adjective "phantasmagoric" is simply "phantasmagoria" with the suffix "-ic," which turns a noun into a descriptive adjective, a pattern common in English since the Greek-derived adjectives of the classical period. Its meaning moved from the literal spectacle, a room full of illusions, to any scene that looks like a rapidly shifting dream. The term describes the experience of watching images change faster than the mind can settle on any of them.

Synonyms: dreamlike, fantastical, surreal

Antonyms: realistic, ordinary