• n. 萬花筒；千變萬化

由其發明者19世紀蘇格蘭科學家David Brewster根據希臘語合成的一個詞，來自希臘語kalos,漂亮的，詞源同calligraphy,eidos,形狀，詞源同idol,-scope,看，詞源同telescope.比喻義千變萬化，持續改變。

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.

這個城市是各種顏色 、 氣味和聲音的萬花筒.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

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

探照燈和焰火使得天空的顏色千變萬化.

來自《現代漢英綜合大詞典》

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

集市的景象光怪陸離,紛然雜陳.

來自辭典例句

4. His paintings are a kaleidoscope of gorgeous colours.

他的油畫色彩斑斕,變化萬千.

來自辭典例句

5. A kaleidoscope is an optical toy.

萬花筒是一種光學玩具.

來自辭典例句