Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Wondrous Words Wednesday



Kathy over at Bermudaonion's Weblog hosts Wondrous Words Wednesday. If you come across a word (or two) while reading that is new to you and would like to share your new knowledge, then hop over to Kathy's place and link up!

Here's what I've got this week from The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell:

Zoetrope:
is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term
zoetrope is from the Greek words "zoe", "life" and τρόπος - tropos, "turn". It may be taken to mean "wheel of life". (Wikipedia)

Context: She speaks to no one, these days. She wants to concentrate, she doesn't like to muddy things with the distraction of speech. There is a zoetrope inside her head and she doesn't like to be caught out when it stops.

2 comments:

bermudaonion said...

Oh, I know what that is, but I've never known it's name - I think we called them flipbooks or something. What a great word!

Col (Col Reads) said...

I think I remember reading about zoetropes as the precursors to animated film, but like Kathy, I couldn't have come up with the name in a million years!