Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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| a white, crystalline, water-insoluble, powerful high explosive, C3H6N6O6, used chiefly in bombs and shells. |
| an obscure term ostensibly referring to a lung disease caused by silica dust, sometimes cited as one of the longest words in the English language. |
- Essays on the iconography of seduction range from film to fashion.
- New books take on two topics integral to black politics-the iconography of emancipation and the power of hair.
- We are inescapably surrounded by their culture, iconography and ideology.
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iconography
the science of identification, description, classification, and interpretation of symbols, themes, and subject matter in the visual arts. The term can also refer to the artist's use of this imagery in a particular work. The earliest iconographical studies, published in the 16th century, were catalogs of emblems and symbols collected from antique literature and translated into pictorial terms for the use of artists. The most famous of these works is Cesare Ripa's Iconologia (1593). Extensive iconographical study did not begin in Europe until the 18th century, however, when, as a companion to archaeology, it consisted of the classification of subjects and motifs in ancient monuments.
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