Art & MusicGreek → English
Anaglyph
/ˈænəɡlɪf/noun
A carving in low relief, or a two-colour image that shows depth when seen through tinted glasses.
The Greek roots
ἀνά
aná
up, back
γλύφειν
glýphein
to carve, cut
Literally: “carved in relief”
The story of the word
For two centuries this was a stonemason's word: an ornament cut so that the figure stands up out of the ground, ἀνά up and γλύφειν to carve, the same verb hiding in hieroglyph. Photographers of the 1890s took it for the red and green double image that coloured spectacles pull apart into depth. A term for cameo work ended up naming the cardboard glasses handed out with comic books.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
hieroglyphglyphtriglyphglyptic
In a sentence
The frieze is a shallow anaglyph, barely a finger's depth of relief.
He printed the survey map as an anaglyph so the ridges would stand up off the page.