Other forms: perspectives
A perspective is the particular angle from which one person sees a matter. From her perspective, a different perspective, put it in perspective.
Put something in perspective means to see it at its true size against everything else, and lose all perspective means the opposite. In art, perspective is the technique for representing depth on a flat surface, developed in fifteenth-century Italy — one-point and two-point perspective are the standard schemes. Note point of view and viewpoint, which are the everyday equivalents of the first sense.
1nounperspectiveThe angle from which one person sees a matter.
“From their perspective the whole decision looked different.”
synonyms: viewpoint, point of view
2nountechniqueThe technique of showing depth on a flat surface.
“The perspective in that painting is deliberately wrong.”
perspective is a way of seeing.
Also accepted in games: viewpoint, point of view
Medieval Latin perspectiva was the science of optics, from perspicere — per-, through, plus specere, to look. A perspective is a looking-through, which describes both the art technique and the mental one.
Proto-Indo-European
*speḱ-
Latin
perspectivus — of sight, optical
Medieval Latin
perspectiva — science of optics
Middle English
perspective
English, today
perspective
Built from
From Middle English perspective, attested since 1381, from Old French - or Middle French -, from the first word of the Medieval Latin perspectiva (“science of optics”), the feminine of Latin perspectivus (“of sight, optical”), from perspectus, the past participle of perspicere (“to inspect, look through”), itself from per- (“through”) + specere (“to look at”); the noun sense was influenced or mediated by Italian prospettiva, from prospetto (“prospect”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA