Why this word is great
PHANTASMAGORIST — [Noun] A creator of phantasmagorias: shifting, dreamlike optical illusions of spectral and fantastic imagery. From the French-derived term phantasmagoria (itself from Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phántasma, "apparition, phantom") and possibly ἀγορά (agorá, "assembly")) + the agent-noun suffix -ist ("one who does or makes"). Unlike an illusionist, who trades in deft concealment for delight, or a visionary, who is possessed of prophetic inward sight, the phantasmagorist is an architect of palpable unreality. It is the silhouette behind the lantern, conjuring ghosts upon a screen of smoke; the engineer whose dissolving projector melts a pastoral scene into a grinning skull; the curator of a cabinet where light and glass fabricate silent, waltzing specters. In this conjuring of phantoms, we find the poignant, technological desire to give material form to the insubstantial theater of the mind.