Art & MusicGreek → English
Cyclorama
/ˌsaɪkləˈrɑːmə/noun
A curved backdrop or continuous painting surrounding the viewer, used in theatres, studios and nineteenth-century exhibition rotundas.
The Greek roots
κύκλος
kýklos
circle, wheel
ὅραμα
hórama
sight, view
Literally: “circle view”
The story of the word
Purpose-built rotundas housing vast circular battle paintings were mass entertainment before cinema: audiences stood on a central platform surrounded by 360 degrees of canvas, sometimes with real earth and props running up to the painted edge. The Gettysburg and Atlanta cycloramas still survive. In a modern theatre the cyc is the plain curved cloth at the back that lighting turns into sky.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
panoramadioramacyclecycloneencyclopedia
In a sentence
Blue light on the cyclorama did the work of an entire sky.
The restored cyclorama takes about fifteen minutes to walk around.