| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| landscape |
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| SYLLABICATION: | land·scape |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  l nd sk p |
| NOUN: | 1. An expanse of scenery that can be seen in a single view: a desert landscape. 2. A picture depicting an expanse of scenery. 3. The branch of art dealing with the representation of natural scenery. 4. The aspect of the land characteristic of a particular region: a bleak New England winter landscape. 5. Grounds that have been landscaped: liked the house especially for its landscape. 6. An extensive mental view; an interior prospect: “They occupy the whole landscape of my thought” (James Thurber). | | ADJECTIVE: | 1. Of or relating to a landscape or landscapes: landscape painting. 2. Of or relating to landscaping: a nursery offering landscape services. 3. Of or relating to the orientation of a page such that the shorter side runs from top to bottom: printed the document in landscape mode in order to accommodate the wide columns of a table. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: land·scaped, land·scap·ing, land·scapes
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | To adorn or improve (a section of ground) by contouring and by planting flowers, shrubs, or trees. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | To arrange grounds artistically as a profession. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Dutch landschap, from Middle Dutch landscap, region : land, land; see lendh- in Appendix I + -scap, state, condition (collective suff.). | | OTHER FORMS: | landscaper —NOUN
| | WORD HISTORY: | It would seem that in the word landscape we have an example of nature imitating art, at least insofar as sense development is concerned. Landscape, first recorded in 1598, was borrowed as a painters' term from Dutch during the 16th century, when Dutch artists were on the verge of becoming masters of the landscape genre. The Dutch word landschap had earlier meant simply “region, tract of land” but had acquired the artistic sense, which it brought over into English, of “a picture depicting scenery on land.” Interestingly, 34 years pass after the first recorded use of landscape in English before the word is used of a view or vista of natural scenery. This delay suggests that people were first introduced to landscapes in paintings and then saw landscapes in real life.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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