reveal
reveal – sostantivo, di solito singolare
The big reveal is not just an empty shock, it’s thoughtful and thought-provoking.
The reveal at the end was wholly unwarranted and made it a poorer book.
But now the final coup, Allen’s trademark—the ‘reveal’. ‘Madame, did you know that at this moment you are on nationwide TV?’
Upcoming rides just got a notch more exclusive with the reveal of the upcoming 2013 Aston Martin Vanquish.
Nel film Star Wars: Episodio 5 – L’Impero colpisce ancora il momento in cui Dart Fener dice a Luke Skywalker di essere suo padre è diventato uno dei più citati (spesso erroneamente) di tutta la storia del cinema. È anche l’esempio più calzante di reveal, una tecnica narrativa ben collaudata per mezzo della quale si comunica all’improvviso, al lettore o allo spettatore, un’informazione fino a quel momento tenuta nascosta; e questo per ottenere una reazione di sorpresa e possibilmente di un certo shock. Il termine si usa anche nei reality per svelare i risultati di una trasformazione e nella pubblicità per il lancio di un nuovo prodotto.
Ma perché utilizzare reveal quando c’è già il termine revelation? La differenza sta nel fatto che reveal sottintende l’intenzionalità dell’occultamento dell’informazione ora rivelata e richiama alla mente la teatralità dei gesti dei prestigiatori.
Origini del termine
Reveal dimostra ancora una volta con quanta facilità in inglese una parola possa passare da una categoria grammaticale a un’altra. Secondo l’Oxford Dictionary il termine era d’uso comune fino al XVII secolo con il significato di revelation; caduto in disuso, è stato poi ripreso con l’avvento della TV negli anni ’50.
reveal – noun, usually singular
The big reveal is not just an empty shock, it’s thoughtful and thought-provoking.
The reveal at the end was wholly unwarranted and made it a poorer book.
But now the final coup, Allen’s trademark—the ‘reveal’. ‘Madame, did you know that at this moment you are on nationwide TV?’
Upcoming rides just got a notch more exclusive with the reveal of the upcoming 2013 Aston Martin Vanquish.
The moment in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back when Darth Vader tells Luke Skywalker that he is in fact his father has become one of the most quoted (and misquoted) lines in movie history. It is also a prime example of the reveal, a well-known narrative technique where information that has previously been concealed is sprung on the viewer or reader order to provoke surprise and an agreeable degree of shock. The term is also used in reality TV to refer to the moment when the results of a makeover are unveiled both to the client and to the viewing public, and to the moment when a new product is publicly launched.
You might wonder why we need a new noun, reveal, when we already have the perfectly serviceable noun revelation. But a reveal is something different. While a revelation is something that is revealed, or the act of revealing it, a reveal is something that has deliberately been kept hidden or secret. The word suggests the conjuror’s flourish, the whisking aside of a curtain, the moment when all becomes clear.
Origins
Reveal shows yet again the ease with which words can switch grammatical categories in English. According to the OED this noun use was common until the 17th century with the meaning of revelation, after which it fell into disuse only to be revived by the advent of television in the 1950s.
