spectacle

英文词源

spectacle

spectacle: [14] Spectacle is one of a large family of English words that go back ultimately to Latin specere ‘look’ (a descendant of the Indo- European base *spek- ‘look’, of which a reversed Greek version *skep- gave English sceptic and scope). Others include special, species, spectator [16], spectre [17] (etymologically an ‘appearance’ or ‘image’), spectrum [17] (from Latin spectrum ‘appearance’, ultimate source also of spectre, and first used for the ‘band of colours’ by Isaac Newton around 1671), speculate [16], spite, and spy, not to mention prefixed forms such as aspect [14], auspice, conspicuous [16], espionage, expect, frontispiece, inspect [17], respect, and suspect. Spectacle itself comes via Old French spectacle from the Latin derivative spectāculum ‘show, sight’.

The application to a ‘device for seeing with’, which lies behind English spectacles [15] and its abbreviation specs [19], is a post-Latin development.
=> auspice, conspicuous, espionage, expect, frontispiece, inspect, respect, special, species, suspect

spectacle (n.)

mid-14c., "specially prepared or arranged display," from Old French spectacle "sight, spectacle, Roman games" (13c.), from Latin spectaculum "a public show, spectacle, place from which shows are seen," from spectare "to view, watch, behold," frequentative form of specere "to look at," from PIE *spek- "to observe" (see scope (n.1)).