Meaning of vidience | Babel Free

Definitions

A group of observers.

rare

Examples

“During the season of my second visit⟳, the receipts of Brigham’s theater averaged eight hundred dollars per night; and one evening they reached thirteen hundred dollars. Mrs. Julia Dean Cooper was filling a long star engagement at two hundred dollars per night. At first she found the audiences, or as Gail Hamilton would call⟳ them, the vidiences, curiously fresh and inexperienced.”

“There was not even a referee, no seconds, no bottle-holder—barring one of the combatants—no reporters, no audience, not even a vidience.”

“It is very easy to see⟳ what a help⟳ to a vidience the caste can be, especially in some very heavy drama or costume play⟳, which requires close⟳ attention to understand⟳.”

“Mr. A. J. Eickhoff has coined us a new word, Vidience, designating a body of persons who “hear⟳” by means of sight.”

“Years ago I saw⟳ Mr. Cohan in an American-flag-song-and-dance-show called “The Yankee Prince.” I found it a colossal bore. However, the house was jammed to the last⟳ inch, and apparently the audience or vidience loved it. […] With reference to the word vidience, which, at the suggestion of Mr. John M. Shedd, I advocated in a recent number⟳ of this magazine, I am surprised to learn⟳ from the Chicago News of April 29 that “the word optience for a movie assemblage is already in general use⟳, in the Middle West at least.” […] R. H. Pitt, editor of The Religious Herald, Richmond, Va., claims priority over Mr. John M. Shedd for the coinage of the word vidience.”

“Among the related subjects discussed were: the economic struggle⟳ of the artist for survival in a world crisis; the fight⟳ against censorship; the repression of the Negro; the freedom enjoyed by artists in the Soviet Union; the boycott of the Nazi Olympic art exhibitions; organization of artists; the social basis of art; race⟳ and art; the artist in search⟳ of a vidience; ways to reach⟳ wider publics; art museums and the living artist; present-day tendencies in American art; art in Italy and Germany under fascism; and permanent federal art projects.”

““The County Fair,” reproduced herewith, is a recent canvas by Waldo Peirce in the Gillespie Galleries display. Peirce is known to Pittsburgh vidiences through his entries at the Carnegie Internationals.”

“Television is a post-war load⟳ potentiality for the electric utilities. Some of potentiality rests on the capacity of prospective “vidiences” to absorb the sets and some depends on the type⟳ of programs offered and how well they are organized and supervised.”

“When we read⟳ a transcribed recording of a speech – such as the one above – we realize⟳ the basic difference between an audience and a “vidience.” The former must depend⟳ entirely upon fleeting sounds. The latter can turn⟳ back the pages to refresh⟳ its memory. Thus, the audience needs much more linking and restatement than the “vidience.””

“[…] an audience (dig⟳ the word audience. all we do is look⟳ but who ever heard of a vidience).”

“And a skillful speaker of this gestural language who accompanies his visible speech with conventional spoken English for those in the audience who hear⟳ (are the deaf an audience—or are they rather a vidience?) is not performing a word by word translation of the one into the other.”

“The "audience" as a passive receiver of information, might be better described if that term is replaced by the notion of a "vidience" (Beardsley 4), which does not necessarily hearken us back to preliterate times, and gives a greater sense⟳, once again, of the multisensory interactive nature of “communication” -beyond the religious connotations.”

“In the final analysis, film and television are primarily expected to tell⟳ stories. Audiences (or “vidiences”) want⟳ to be engaged by some form⟳ of narrative.”

CEFR level