Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

In 1796, the Irish painter Robert Barker invented the word panorama to denote a scene painted on the interior of a large cylinder, giving the viewer, standing in the center of the cylinder, a 360-degree view of the painting. Barkers word, panorama, is a blending of the prefix pan, meaning "all," and orama, from a Greek verb meaning "to see."

The Greek-based orama made a significant appearance again in the early 1950s with the development of Cinerama, a wide screen process of film projection which surrounded movie audiences with exciting, life-like sound and movement. This thrilling technology launched a new, slangy, 20th century career for the ancient Greek element orama, which was resurrected as a noun-forming suffix.

Stuart Berg Flexner, in his history book called Listening to America says orama was "in wide fad use by the 1950s, especially to name or describe a...cheap or flashy business establishment." So by the late 50s, Americans could go to a drink-orama for cocktails or knock down some pins at a bowl-orama. Even into the 21st century, you can look for used goods in the neighborhood at a garagarama. An Internet search yielded some delightful information about Spongarama, a Florida museum dedicated to -- you guessed it -- sponges!

Radio Script > -Orama Suffix