transparency
(trɑːnsˈpɛərənsɪ, træns-, -ˈpær-, -nz-)
[ad. med.L. transpārēnti-a (Du Cange), f. transpārēnt-em: see next and -ency.]
1. a. The quality or condition of being transparent; perviousness to light; diaphaneity, pellucidity.
thermal transparency, perviousness to heat rays; diathermancy; cf. transparent 1 b.
| 1615 H. Crooke Body of Man 556 It is like a thinne and pollished horne of a Lanthorn, not only in transparencie by which meanes it receiueth the light, but also in his substance. 1651–3 Jer. Taylor Serm. for Year I. xviii. 238 His wife may, by seeing the beauties and transparency of that Crystall, dresse her minde and her body by the light of so pure reflexions. 1705 Addison Italy 26 The Clearness and Transparency of the Stream. 1750 tr. Leonardus' Mirr. Stones 36 A stone with a transparency, or a kind of brightness. 1830 Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 141 Between transparency and opacity there would at first sight appear a direct opposition. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. Sea (Low) vi. §313 The atmosphere is transparency itself. 1900 Jrnl. Soc. Dyers XVI. 7 The particles retain their form and transparency. |
| fig. 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. ii. i, Written in its child⁓like transparency. 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt v, The transparency of his talk..gave a charm even to his weaknesses. |
b. Linguistics. The state or quality of being transparent (sense 2 c). With reference to a phonological rule,
opp. opacity 3 c.
| 1971 [see opaque a. 3 c]. 1975 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics XX. 175 Rules tend to be ordered so as to become maximally transparent, where transparency is the opposite of opacity. 1981 Ibid. XXVI. 73 Transparency of the base word is an important factor in determining speakers' choice of neologism. |
c. Of reproduced sound: the state or quality of being transparent (sense 3).
| 1982 E. Greenfield et al. New Penguin Stereo Record & Cassette Guide p. ix/2, Disc reproduction continues to offer a marginally greater range of sound and a more subtle inner transparency of detail than the equivalent tape. 1983 What Hi-Fi? Dec. 102/3 This {pstlg}129 speaker offers a high quality of finish and a transparency and accuracy of sound that can compete with models twice the price. |
d. The state or quality of transmitting or allowing the passage of sound waves without distortion (see
transparent a. 1 b).
| 1983 What Hi-Fi? Dec. 113/3 The most impressive [feature] was the sheer transparency of the design. 1984 Gramophone Mar. 1086/1 The effect (emphasized by the transparency of the CD medium) is of sitting in a small room, very close to the cello and with the lid of the piano wide open. |
2. a. That which is transparent; a transparent object or medium.
| 1591 Harington Orl. Fur. iii. xvi, To make transparencies to meete in one And so convey the sunne-beames where you will. 1784 Cowper Task v. 151 A watery light Gleamed through the clear transparency. |
b. spec. A picture, print, inscription, or device on some translucent substance, made visible by means of a light behind.
| 1785 J. Woodforde Diary 21 June (1926) II. 196 Went to Bunns Gardens... There was tolerable good Music, indifferent singing, some pretty transparencies and tolerable fire Works. 1801 Sporting Mag. XIX. 49/1 A transparency, in which a gardener at Hammersmith exhibited a Flower-pot, during the illuminations. 1807 E. Orme (title) Essay on Transparent Prints, and on Transparencies in general. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 9 A mode of painting ‘transparencies’ as they would now be called, on linen. |
| attrib. 1855 W. Williams (title) Transparency painting on linen for decorative purposes. |
c. A photograph or picture on glass or other transparent substance, intended to be seen by transmitted light. Also
attrib.| 1866 Brit. Jrnl. Photogr. 1 June 264/1 Many of these lantern transparencies had been enlarged from spots of these originals. 1874 Corbet Venus at Isle of Desolation 104 (Cassell), I took transparencies of the little photos. he took of my station. 1885 C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iv. 357/2 A negative or transparency is not fully developed much under 15 minutes. 1892 Photogr. Ann. II. 576 Various transparency printing frames. 1897 J. Nicol in Outing (U.S.) XXX. 496/2 The transparency plate and negative are placed in the printing frame exactly as in printing on paper. 1965 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 9 Feb. (1970) 239 The transparency I have..shows a real John Singleton Copley, of the best early American period. 1969 ‘E. Lathen’ When in Greece v. 49 He had brought slides..a veritable library of transparencies. 1973 ‘H. Howard’ Highway to Murder iv. 46 Like transparencies flashed on a screen I saw pictures of long ago. |
† 3. Her. An outline figure, or the shadow of a charge, without the charge itself, painted the same colour as the field, but of a darker tint:
= adumbration 4.
Obs.| 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry ii. iii. 42 Adumbration or Transparency is a cleere exemption of the substance of the Charge..in such sort, as that there remaineth nothing thereof to be discerned, but the..bare proportion of the outward lineaments thereof. Ibid. vii. 65 The Orle..is an Ordinarie composed of a threefold line duplicated, admitting a Transparancie of the field, thorowout the..space therein enclosed. 1725 Coats Dict. Her. s.v. Adumbration, Some term such Adumbration, Transparency. |
4. A burlesque translation of the German title of address
Durchlaucht:
cf. serenity 4.
| 1844 Thackeray B. Lyndon ix, Hobnobbing..with lovely excellencies, nay, with highnesses and transparencies themselves. Ibid., Pippi..had kept back a note of hand ‘her High Transparency’ gave us. 1848 ― Van. Fair lxii, His Transparency the Duke and his Transparent family..come and occupy the great box in the middle. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 7 Feb. 2/1 During the sojourn of grand transparencies beneath your Derbyshire roof. |