panopticon

panopticon

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πᾶν (pân, “all”) + ὀπτικός (optikós, “visible”).

Noun

panopticon (plural panopticons)

1. A type of prison, designed by philosopher Jeremy Bentham, wherein all the cells are visible from the center of the building. It engenders a feeling of being watched.
2. A room for the exhibition of novelties.

Quotations

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:panopticon.

Translations

type of prison

Chinese: Mandarin: 圓形監獄, 圆形监狱 (yuánxíng jiānyù) Finnish: panoptikon French: panoptique (fr) m, panopticon (fr) m German: Panoptikum (de) n

Greek: πανοπτικό n (panoptikó) Japanese: パノプティコン (panoputikon) Portuguese: panóptico m Russian: пано́птикум (ru) m (panóptikum)

room for the exhibition of novelties

Finnish: panoptikon German: Panoptikum (de) n

Japanese: パノプティコン (panoputikon) Russian: пано́птикум (ru) m (panóptikum)