panopticon

Meaning

1. (historical) A kind of projector in the 18th and 19th centuries.
2. A type of prison where all the cells are visible from the center, particularly if it is not possible for those in a cell to know if they are being watched.
3. (broadly, figuratively) A place in which people are subject to constant surveillance at totalitarian command.
4. A room for the exhibition of novelties.

Synonyms

waxworks exhibition

waxworks show

jail

prison

stockade

Translations

Panoptikum

panoptique

panopticon

panóptico

panóptico

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πᾶν (pân, “all”) + ὀπτικός (optikós, “visible”). Coined by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in 1787.