Skopos

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term originating from Greek, referring to a purpose or goal guiding a particular action or project
2. the intended aim that influences decisions and strategies
3. in rhetorical contexts, it signifies the specific effect or response sought from an audience during communication

Etymology: Ancient Greek "skopos" meant "watcher" or "one who looks out," a sense rooted in the act of sighting or observing. The word was built from the same stem that gave Greek "skopein," "to look at," and it is the ancestor of a whole family of English words that have to do with seeing and examining, such as "microscope," "telescope," and "periscope." In those words the Greek element names an instrument for looking. "Skopos" itself, though, referred to the person doing the looking, the lookout posted to watch for danger or to keep an eye on something. From that idea of watching, the Greek word came to mean the mark or target that a watcher fixes on, and so the sense of an aim or goal grew naturally out of the sense of looking intently at something. English took the word in its modern sense of a guiding purpose, the end that shapes a plan or decision, from this Greek root. Its meaning thus moved from a person scanning the horizon to the destination that the scanning was for.

Synonyms: purpose, aim, goal, objective, target

Antonyms: accident, randomness, chance, aimlessness, haphazardness