different between logline vs synopsis

English

Alternative forms

• logge-line, log lyne, logg line, logg-line, loggline (all obsolete)
• log line, log-line

Etymology

First attested in 1613 as logge-line. A compound of log +? line.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?l??.la?n/

Noun

logline (plural loglines)

1. (authorship) A very short summary of a script or screenplay.

   Coordinate term: elevator pitch

   • 2013, Xander Bennett, Screenwriting Tips, You Hack (page 16)

     Screenwriting Tip #12: If you don't know your own logline, you probably don't know what your script is about. Some writers will tell you they don't have a logline. Their screenplay is “too complex” or “too character-driven,” […]

   • 2013, Linda Venis, Cut to the Chase: Writing Feature Films with the Pros at UCLA Extension Writers' Program, Penguin (?ISBN)

     The first step in outlining is to make sure that your logline, that one-or-two- sentence summary of your movie you first created in chapter 2 (“Jump-starting the Screenplay”), is the best that it can be in capturing what your movie is about now.

2. (nautical) The line fastened to the log, and marked for finding the speed of a vessel.
   • 1613, Mark Ridley, A Short Treatise of Magneticall Bodies and Motions

     Besides the ingenious Pilot knowing the elevation of the Pole in some places of his voyage that he hath passed, by keeping a true, not a dead reckoning of his course in pricking his Card aright, and observing the way with the logge-line, with other currants, will give a very artificiall conjecture of the elevation of the pole in that place where he is, though he sec neither Sunne nor Starres.

   • 1627, John Smith, A sea grammar with the plaine exposition of Smiths Accidence for young sea-men, enlarged

     Bring the ship to rights, that is, againe under saile as she was, some use a Log line, and a minute glasse to know what way shee makes, but that is so uncertaine, it is not worth the la­bour to trie it.

   • 1659, John Collins, Navigation by the Mariners Plain Scale New Plain'd

     The 120th part of that Mile is 41? feet, and so much is the space betweene the Knots upon the Log-line: So many Knots as the ship runs in half a minute, so many Miles she sayleth in an hour; or so many Leagues, and so many Miles she runneth in a Watch or four hours, called A Watch, because one half of the Ships Company watcheth by turns, and changes every four hours.

Related terms

• heave the log

Translations

See also

• plotline

English

Etymology

From Late Latin synopsis, itself from Ancient Greek ??????? (súnopsis), from ??? (sún, “with or whole”) + ???? (ópsis, “view”) meaning whole view

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /s??n?ps?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /s??n?ps?s/

Noun

synopsis (plural synopses)

1. (authorship) A brief summary of the major points of a written work, either as prose or as a table; an abridgment or condensation of a work.
2. A reference work containing brief articles that taken together give an overview of an entire field.
3. (Orthodoxy) A prayer book for use by the laity of the church.

Synonyms

• (brief summary): abridgment, abstract, conspectus, outline, overview, summary

Related terms

• synoptic
• synoptical
• synoptically
• synoptist

Translations

See also

• bird's-eye view

Further reading

• synopsis in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• synopsis in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Finnish

Noun

synopsis

1. synopsis

Declension

Synonyms

• tiivistelmä

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si.n?p.sis/

Noun

synopsis m or f (plural synopsis)

1. A general overview or synoptic table of a topic.
2. (media) Plot summary of a movie.

Further reading

• “synopsis” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ???????? (súnopsis, “shared view; estimate”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /sy?nop.sis/, [s???n?ps??s?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /si?nop.sis/, [si?n?psis]

Noun

synopsis f (genitive synopsis or synopse?s or synopsios); third declension

1. list
2. synopsis

Declension

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, i-stem, i-stem).

¹Found sometimes in Medieval and New Latin.

Descendants

• English: synopsis
• French: synopsis
• Italian: sinossi
• Spanish: sinopsis
• Portuguese: sinopse

References

• synopsis in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• synopsis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette