kaleidoscope

• n. 万花筒；千变万化

由其发明者19世纪苏格兰科学家David Brewster根据希腊语合成的一个词，来自希腊语kalos,漂亮的，词源同calligraphy,eidos,形状，词源同idol,-scope,看，词源同telescope.比喻义千变万化，持续改变。

kaleidoscope

kaleidoscope: [19] Greek kalós meant ‘beautiful’ (it was related to Sanskrit kalyāna ‘beautiful’). It has given English a number of compound words: calligraphy [17], for instance, etymologically ‘beautiful writing’, callipygian [18], ‘having beautiful buttocks’, and callisthenics [19], literally ‘beauty and strength’. The Scottish physicist Sir David Brewster used it, along with Greek eidos ‘shape’ and the element -scope denoting ‘observation instrument’, to name a device he invented in 1817 for looking at rotating patterns of coloured glass – a ‘beautiful-shape viewer’.
=> calligraphy, callisthenics

kaleidoscope (n.)

1817, literally "observer of beautiful forms," coined by its inventor, Scottish scientist David Brewster (1781-1868), from Greek kalos "beautiful" (see Callisto) + eidos "shape" (see -oid) + -scope, on model of telescope, etc. They sold by the thousands in the few years after their invention, but Brewster failed to secure a patent.

Figurative meaning "constantly changing pattern" is first attested 1819 in Lord Byron, whose publisher had sent him one of the toys. As a verb, from 1891. A kaleidophone (1827) was invented by English physicist Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875) to make sound waves visible.

1. This city is a kaleidoscope of colours, smells, and sounds.

这个城市是各种颜色 、 气味和声音的万花筒.

来自《简明英汉词典》

2. The search lights and the fireworks made the sky a kaleidoscope of colour.

探照灯和焰火使得天空的颜色千变万化.

来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3. The bazaar was a kaleidoscope of strange sights and impressions.

集市的景象光怪陆离,纷然杂陈.

来自辞典例句

4. His paintings are a kaleidoscope of gorgeous colours.

他的油画色彩斑斓,变化万千.

来自辞典例句

5. A kaleidoscope is an optical toy.

万花筒是一种光学玩具.

来自辞典例句