Iconography is the way a people, a religion, or a political group shows ideas in pictures and images — the shared picture-language, not just one drawing. A halo over a saint, a party colour, a raised fist, a flag, a superhero’s costume: once you know the code, the image is doing work that words would also do.

Iconography是iconography(圖像學、圖像系統) is the way a people, a religion, or a political group shows ideas in pictures and images指一個民族、宗教或政治團體用圖片和影像表達觀念的方式 the shared picture-language也就是共同的圖像語言 not just one drawing而不只是一張畫 A halo over a saint聖人頭上的光環 a party colour政黨的顏色 a raised fist舉起的拳頭 a flag一面旗子 a superhero's costume超級英雄的服裝 once you know the code一旦你懂這套符碼 the image is doing work that words would also do這個影像做的就是文字也能做的事

Art historians also use the word for the study of those codes (what a lily is doing in an old painting, what a certain animal means in a poster).

Art historians藝術史學者 also use the word for the study of those codes也用這個字來指研究這些符碼的學問 (what a lily is doing in an old painting像一朵百合在一幅古畫裡代表什麼 what a certain animal means in a poster或某種動物在海報裡意味著什麼)

The pieces are ‘image’ plus a bit that means ‘writing’ or ‘describing’.

The pieces are 'image' plus a bit that means 'writing' or 'describing'這個字的組成是'image'(圖像)加上意思是「書寫」或「描述」的部分

It is a specialist word: museums, film class, politics, not the dinner table.

It is a specialist word這是一個專業用語 museums, film class, politics在博物館、電影課、政治領域裡用 not the dinner table而不是在餐桌上

People sometimes stretch it to mean merely ‘the look of something’ (the iconography of a pop star). That looser use is common now, though actually the tighter sense is a shared set of images with meaning, not only a style.

People sometimes stretch it to mean merely 'the look of something'人們有時候會把它引申成只是指「某種東西的樣貌」 (the iconography of a pop star像'流行歌手的iconography') That looser use is common now這種比較鬆散的用法現在很常見 though actually不過其實 the tighter sense is a shared set of images with meaning比較嚴謹的意思是一套有意義的共同圖像 not only a style而不只是一種風格