Scenery Means Both the Landscape and the Painted Set
Scenery is the natural landscape, and also the flats and backdrops on a stage. Both come from the Greek word for a stage building.
Scenery is the visual character of a landscape, and also the constructed background of a stage. The theatre sense is older: Greek *skene* was the hut behind the acting area, which became the painted backdrop and then the whole set. English then applied the word to real views, as though the countryside were staged.
- Natural landscape. *Spectacular scenery.*
- Theatrical sets. *The scenery is changed between acts.*
- Chew the scenery — to overact. *He chewed the scenery in the last act.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | scenery | Mountain scenery. |
| Related | scene | The final scene. |
| Adjective | scenic | A scenic route. |
| Related | set | A revolving set. |
| Related | backdrop | A painted backdrop. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The scenery along the coast is the reason people come.Uncountable: never sceneries.
- The scenery was struck after the final performance.Struck means dismantled.
- Take the scenic route.Longer, and worth it.
Stage vocabulary
- Flat — a lightweight framed panel of scenery
- Backdrop — a large painted cloth at the rear
- Wings — the offstage areas at the sides
- Get-in and get-out — bringing a set in and taking it away
- Strike — dismantling the set after the run
From Italian *scenario*, from Latin *scena*, from Greek *skene*, a tent or hut — the structure behind the acting area that gave us *scene*, *scenery* and *scenario*.
Is scenery countable?
No. Say beautiful scenery or a stretch of scenery, never sceneries.
Where does *chew the scenery* come from?
From the idea of an actor so overwrought that they seem to be biting the set. It has been used since at least the 1930s.