scenarion.
/sᵻˈnɑːrɪəʊ/, /sᵻˈnɛːrɪəʊ/, U.S. /səˈnɛrioʊ/ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > a theatre > other parts of theatre > [noun] > parts of ancient Greek or Roman theatre
scenaa1387
scene1481
orchestra1606
proscenium1606
cavea1611
scenarioa1684
subselliuma1701
diazoma1706
parascenium1706
pavilion1730
hyposcenium1753
thymele1753
vomitorium1754
velarium1834
velum1843
a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1646 (1955) II. 482 Over the Scenario is the Inscription, ‘Virtuti ac Genio Olympior: Academia Theatrum hoc à Fundamentis erexit Palladio Architect: 1584’.
2.
a. A plan, outline, or synopsis of the plot of a play, novel, opera, ballet, etc. Also figurative and in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > written or printed text > [noun] > outline of scenes
scenery1683
scenario1768
scene plot1797
1768 G. Baretti Acct. Manners & Customs Italy I. xi. 174 Two copies of the scenario (so this kind of dramatic skeleton is called) in two lateral back parts of the stage.
1878 G. H. Lewes Jrnl. 28–29 Apr. in ‘G. Eliot’ Lett. (1956) VII. 13 Schemed a scenario from Daniel Deronda.
1884 P. Simpson in Pall Mall Gaz. 19 May 1/2 As the next step, I write an elaborate scenario..minutely setting down, not only the scenes as they follow, the action of the personages engaged, the sense of all they have to say, but even the ‘stage business’.
1911 O. Onions Widdershins 279 I myself have drafted a rough scenario of the form it appeared to me the ‘Life’ might with advantage be cast in.
1924 P. G. Wodehouse Bill the Conqueror ix. 159 A young man in a vivid check suit came out, a small young man with close-set eyes and the scenario of a moustache.
1947 A. Einstein Music Romantic Era xvi. 284 He outlined a scenario, and..obtained a completed libretto from Somma.
1977 M. French Women's Room (1978) ii. 90 Oedipus couldn't escape his fate, and neither could she. The scenario had been written before she was even born.
2004 R. Lingeman in Oxf. Encycl. Amer. Lit. II. 438/1 He [sc. Sinclair Lewis] then created a detailed scenario of the novel..and a portfolio of hand-drawn maps of the mythical State of Winnemac, Zenith's business district, Babbitt's office..and much more.
b. Film. An outline or synopsis of the plot or scenes of a film; (hence) a film script; a screenplay; (also) a screenplay or synopsis annotated with the details of the scenes, stage directions, etc., necessary for shooting the film (cf. continuity n. 6a). Also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > cinematography > a film > screenplay or script > [noun]
script1890
scenario1905
screenplay1920
treatment1928
1905 F. Hume Opal Serpent 316 (advt.) A condensed textbook of the technical knowledge necessary for the preparation and sale of motion picture scenarios.
1919 J. B. Esenwein & A. Leeds Writing Photoplay 13 The staff-writers, whose duty it should be to make adaptations of plays and novels and write the scenario, or continuity, for stories bought from free-lance writers in synopsis form.
1922 P. G. Wodehouse Girl on Boat ix. 144 Fate, thought Sam, had constructed a cheap, mushy..five-reel film scenario.
1937 A. Huxley Let. 15 Dec. (1969) 429 Unless in the interval I get any news about a scenario I wrote while out in Hollywood.
1969 M. Steinbeck On Stage 165 Strictly speaking a scenario is a film script. It is not used very much. Usually one hears..film script.
2005 Western Hist. Q. 36 334 William Eagleshirt..appeared in and wrote the scenario for the first Bison 101 picture.
c. In computer and role-playing games: an outline plot or storyline, sequence of events, etc., which represents the environment within which players (and their characters) participate.
ΚΠ
1978 Michigan Technic Oct. 33/1 Board-type simulations are the most popular and the most familiar to the non-wargamer. Given rules and scenarios determine the order of action.
1989 Paintball Games Oct. 19/3 The ‘in the woods’ village was under design to expand the scenarios currently played.
1991 Ace Feb. 56/1 Rather than simply producing a different scenario based on the Midwinter games mechanics, the whole game shell has been recrafted to make Flames of Freedom a truly massive and original game.
2000 White Dwarf May 10/3 Unlike Warhammer or Wharhammer 40,000, Inquisitor has a Gamesmaster..who is responsible for helping the players design their characters, creating a scenario and running a game.
3. A postulated or projected situation or sequence of potential future events; (also) a hypothetical course of events in the past, intended to account for an existing situation, set of facts, etc. Also more generally: a set of circumstances; a pattern of events. O.E.D. Suppl. (1982) remarked ‘The over-use of this word in various loose senses has attracted frequent hostile comment’.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > occurrence > [noun] > course of events
draughta1327
occasiona1450
events1582
subcycle1860
scenario1962
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > branch of knowledge > systematic knowledge, science > [noun] > scientific procedure
method1660
principle1723
model1901
scenario1962
the mind > will > intention > planning > [noun] > planning a course of action > plan of intended course of action
plan of campaign1780
route map1816
action plan1889
end run1902
strategy1944
game plan1957
scenario1962
1962 H. Kahn Thinking about Unthinkable v. 143 A scenario results from an attempt to describe..some hypothetical sequence of events... Scenarios may explore and emphasize an element of a larger problem such as..the process of ‘escalation’ of a small war.
1973 Science 1 June 905/1 He advances this scenario to explain the disappearance of the megafauna in the Americas in the late Pleistocene.
1977 Time 18 Apr. 46/2 By escaping from the lab and multiplying, their scenario goes, it could find its way into human intestines.
1980 Jrnl. Royal Soc. Arts July 474/2 The best scenario..that we can envisage is one in which all those who want to do formal work will have an opportunity of doing two or three days a week.
1995 Brookings Rev. 13 32/3 If White House strategists had included a worst-case scenario in looking ahead to the election, it was not evidence from the president's reaction.
2009 Independent (Nexis) 20 Nov. 20 There's not a member that doesn't grow more disturbed by the scenario unfolding before us in Afghanistan.
Compounds
C1. General attributive and objective (chiefly in sense 2b).
scenario department n.
ΚΠ
1909 Black Cat Sept. 1/2 Moving picture plays wanted... For further information address Scenario Department, Essanay Film Manufacturing Co.
1952 Billboard 14 June 8/3 Lou Lilly, who two weeks ago resigned as head of Jerry Fairbanks' scenario department..this week formed his own TV and commercial film production company.
1997 Times 24 Feb. 23/1 Launder entered the cinema in the scenario department of British International Pictures at Elstree.
scenario editor n.
ΚΠ
1911 Editor Apr. 191 (advt.) Giles R. Warren, noted scenario editor.
1959 W. S. Sharps Dict. Cinematogr. 127/1 Scenario Editor... The title usually applied to the person in charge of the story department of a film producing company.
1990 R. Giroux Deed of Death vi. 98 In addition to serving as scenario editor at the modern Morosco-Bosworth studios,..Ivers directed several films and supervised others.
scenario sketch n.
ΚΠ
1891 Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 5 July 20/5 The scenario sketch of characters, dialogues even, were so accurately laid out in his last novel, ‘Blind Love’, that when the dying novelist implored Walter Besant to finish it for him, the young novelist was able to follow the exact line of construction.
1921 B. Tarkington Let. 30 Mar. in On Plays (1959) 50 I am sending you the scenario sketch for a picture of ‘Beaucaire’.
1966 O. Helmer Social Technol. i. 26 One might begin by asking political experts to write plausible scenario sketches that start with the present and describe in broad outline a possible development of political world relations up to the year 2000.
2001 E. Van Erven Community Theatre iv. 157 (heading) Tuesday afternoon: step three, from scenario sketch to improvisation.
scenario writer n.
ΚΠ
1905 F. Hume Opal Serpent 317 (advt.) The highest paid scenario writer in the world.
1976 N. Botham & P. Donnelly Valentino xi. 82 The woman considered to be the best scenario writer of the day, June Mathis.
2004 L. C. Stanley Foreign Crit. Reputation of F. Scott Fitzgerald 298 Why did he write a novel about a strong hero when he himself was regarded not as a great novelist but as a mere scenario writer?
scenario-writing n.
ΚΠ
1911 Editor Jan. 17 Scenario writing is much more than hack work.
1928 H. Crane Let. 27 Mar. (1965) 321 Maybe scenario writing eventually.
2009 Jrnl. Film & Video 61 21/1 The pastime of scenario-writing, which Kathryn Fuller has suggested, ‘reached the level of a national passion during the 1910s’.
C2.
scenario picture n. now chiefly historical a film for which a plot and storyline are created, as opposed to a documentary or factual film; also figurative.
ΚΠ
1915 Moving Picture World 28 Aug. 1525/1 The picture is the preliminary film to the $500 scenario picture.
1929 W. S. Churchill World Crisis IV. vii. 122 Mr. Baker detracts from the vindication of his hero by the absurd scenario picture which he has chosen to paint.
1997 M. M. Marks Music & Silent Film ii. 34 Deslandes mentions that Skladanowsky made a ‘scenario’ picture, longer than his previous films.
scenario production n. (a) the production of film scripts or scenarios; (b) = scenario picture n. (now rare).
ΚΠ
1913 E. H. Ball Art of Photoplay iii. 60 Writers who are experienced and successful in scenario production are paid much better prices than the amateurs.
1916 C. Charlton How to write Photoplays iii. 18 The man in charge of a scenario production is called the director.
1945 Amer. Cinematographer Mar. 122 (heading) Trials of making a scenario production.
1999 A. J. Scott in H.-J. Braczyk et al. Multimedia & Regional Econ.Restructing iii. 31 Southern California represents the country's most densely-developed concentration of specialized workers in such domains as story-writing, visual dramatization and scenario production.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
scenariov.
/sᵻˈnɑːrɪəʊ/, /sᵻˈnɛːrɪəʊ/, U.S. /səˈnɛrioʊ/ Now rare.
transitive. To make a scenario or plan of (a book, film, performance, etc.); to plan or sketch out. Cf. scenarioize v.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > intention > planning > plan [verb (transitive)] > make a detailed plan of
blueprint1889
scenario1923
1923 P. G. Wodehouse Let. 14 Nov. in Yours, Plum (1990) i. 29 I don't suppose I shall actually write it just as it is scenarioed, but it ought to be pretty close.
1953 P. G. Wodehouse Performing Flea 23 So far I have scenarioed it out to about the 40,000 word mark.
1969 New York 3 Mar. 55/3 A revolting artsy-smartsy pseudo-thriller produced, directed and scenarioed by one Hubert Cornfield.
1974 Daily Tel. 6 Dec. (Colour Suppl.) 42/1 Tonight's entertainment is a fashion show. ‘I hear they've got it all scenarioed out,’ says Bernie.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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