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Meaning of spectrum | Babel Free

Noun CEFR B2
[ˈspɛk.trũː]

Definitions

  1. appearance, image
    declension-2, neuter
  2. apparition, specter, phantom
    declension-2, neuter
  3. spectrum (band of light arranged in order by wavelength)
    New-Latin, declension-2, neuter

Equivalents

Examples

“fit enim nescio qui ut quasi coram adesse videare cum scribo aliquid ad te, neque id κατ’ εἰδ<ώλ>ων φαντασίας, ut dicunt tui amici novi, qui putant etiam διανοητικὰς φαντασίας spectris Catianis excitari. nam, ne te fugiat, Catius Insuber Ἐπικούρειος, qui nuper est mortuus, quae ille Gargettius et iam ante Democritus εἴδωλα, hic spectra nominat. his autem spectris etiam si oculi possent feriri, quod ulis ipsa incurrunt, animus qui possit ego non video; doceas tu me oportebit cum salvus veneris. in meane potestate ut sit spectrum tuum, ut, simul ac mihi collibitum sit de te cogitare, illud occurrat? neque solum de te, qui mihi haeres in medullis, sed si insulam Britanniam coepero cogitare, eius εἴδωλον mihi advolabit ad pectus?”

1900 translation by Evelyn Shuckburgh For somehow it makes you seem almost present when I write anything to you, and that not 'by way of phantoms of images,' as your new friends express it, who hold that 'mental pictures' are caused by what Catius called 'spectres' — for I must remind you that Catius Insuber the Epicurean, lately dead, calls 'spectres' what the famous Gargettius, and before him Democritus, used to call 'images.' Well, even if my eyes were capable of being struck by these 'spectres,' because they spontaneously run in upon them at your will, I do not see how the mind can be struck. You will be obliged to explain it to me, when you return safe and sound, whether the 'spectre' of you is at my command, so as to occur to me as soon as I have taken the fancy to think about you; and not only about you, who are in my heart's core, but supposing I begin thinking about the island of Britain — will its image fly at once into my mind?

“Iam pridem vagabatur rumor ac fabula per eius loci rusticos, iuxta ponticulum hunc observari spectrum quoddam, cuius subinde exaudirentur miserandi eiulatus: suspicabantur, animam esse cuiuspiam, quae diris cruciatibus torqueretur.”

(please add an English translation of this quotation)

“Considerabam praeterea quod latitudine foraminis F per quod lux in cubiculum ingreditur fit penumbra in circuitu spectri Y, et penumbra illa permanet in lateribus rectilineis spectrorum PT et pt.”

Translation by Alan E. Shapiro I further considered that by the breadth of the hole F, through which the light enters the room, a penumbra is made in the border of the spectrum Y, and that penumbra remains in the straight sides of the spectra PT and pt.

CEFR level

B2
Upper Intermediate
This word is part of the CEFR B2 vocabulary — upper intermediate level.

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