means A striking or remarkable sight or public display, especially one staged to be watched by many.

from From Latin spectaculum, "a show, a sight," built on spectare, "to watch," the frequentative of specere, "to look at" — the same root that gives us inspect, spectator, and spectacles (the eyeglasses, literally "things for looking through"). It reached English through Old French in the medieval period, already carrying the sense of a grand public viewing.