a. (sb.) [ad. mod.L. synopticus (whence also F. synoptique, It. sinottico, Sp. sinóptico, Pg. synoptico), ad. Gr. συνοπτικός, f. σύνοψις SYNOPSIS (cf. OPTIC).]
1. Of a table, chart, etc.: Pertaining to or forming a synopsis; furnishing a general view of some subject.
1763. Phil. Trans., LIII. 168. I have … computed them again, and they are as in the following synoptic table.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., xxii. (1842), 564. The instrument is called a Synoptic Scale of Chemical Equivalents, or more usually Wollaston’s Scale.
1851. Nichol, Archit. Heav., 193. Madler’s synoptic view of what he considers established.
1887. R. Abercromby, Weather, i. (1888), 8. Such a chart is called a ‘synoptic chart’ because it enables the meteorologist to take a general view, as it were, over a large area.
b. Of a mental act or faculty, conduct, etc.: Pertaining to, involving, or taking a combined or comprehensive mental view of something.
1852. J. Martineau, Ess., Unity of Mind in Nature (1891), III. 105. Without this synoptic progress, the occupation of the intellect would be gone.
1899. Speaker, 11 Nov., 135/1. That synoptic statesmanship which has done so much for this branch of education in France.
1900. Edmond Holmes, What is Poetry? 28. The poet fuses them [sc. phenomena] by the force of his emotion into the glorious and wonderful whole which generates his emotion, poetic emotion being essentially a synoptic faculty.
2. Applied distinctively to the first three Gospels (viz. of Matthew, Mark and Luke) as giving an account of the events from the same point of view or under the same general aspect. Also transf. pertaining or relating to these Gospels.
1841. Myers, Cath. Th., III. § 17. 45. The Book of Deuteronomy seems to bear something of the same relation to the preceding Four that the Gospel of St. John does to the Synoptic Three.
1861. Trench, Comm. Ep. Churches Asia, 163. The words of Christ as recorded in the Gospels, in the three synoptic Gospels above all.
1899. Sir J. C. Hawkins, Horae Synopticae, Pref. p. v. The origin, mode of composition, and mutual relations of the three Synoptic Gospels form so obscure and so complex a subject of enquiry that it has come to be generally known as the ‘Synoptic Problem.’
b. as sb. Any one of the Synoptic Gospels (or of their writers = SYNOPTIST 1). Usually in pl.
1858. J. Martineau, Stud. Christ., 257. The Synoptics … which present only varieties of the same fundamental tradition.
1874. M. Arnold, in Contemp. Rev., Oct., 815. The Fourth Gospel … puts the clearance [of the temple] at the beginning of Christ’s career, the synoptics put it at the end.
1875. E. White, Life in Christ, III. xvii. The sublime scenes of His Baptism, and of His Transfiguration … when the synoptics tell us that God spoke of Him as His ‘Beloved Son.’
