glaucoma

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin glaucōma (“cataract”),^[2][3][4] or directly borrowed from Ancient Greek γλαύκωμα (glaúkōma, “cataract, opacity of the lens of the eye”),^[5][6][7] from γλαυκός (glaukós, “gleaming; bluish green, grey”),^[5][8][3][6] the source of glaucous, with the suffix -oma.^[4][7] The Oxford Dictionary of English explains the name by the grey-green haze in the pupil.^[9] Barnhart and Klein call the Greek adjective of uncertain origin,^[6][8] and Etymonline suggests the noun may come from a Greek word for "grey-eyed".^[10] Weekley derived it from γλαύξ (glaúx, “owl”), named from its bright staring eyes.^[11] Barnhart records the first English form as glaucome,^[6] and Johnson gives French glaucome.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

An eye disease, at first not distinguished from cataract: 1643, in Herle's Answer to Fernes Reply.^[5][6] Etymonline dates it to the 1640s,^[10] and Dictionary.com to 1635–45.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The Greek word meant a cataract, an opacity of the lens,^[6][10] and English used it in that sense at first; cataract and glaucoma were not distinguished until about 1705.^[6][10] Johnson (1755) still defined it as a fault that turns the crystalline humour of the eye greyish without harming the sight, and quoted Sharp, who held that glaucoma was no other disease than cataract.^[12] The modern definition, a disease marked by raised pressure within the eyeball and a gradual loss of sight, is the one in the OED and later dictionaries;^[5][3][7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1885 as the word's first known use.^[3]

Timeline

• 1643 – an eye disease, not yet distinguished from cataract.^[5][6]
• c. 1705 – distinguished from cataract.^[6][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A disease of the eye in which raised pressure within the eyeball damages the optic disc and gradually impairs sight, sometimes leading to blindness.^[14][3][7]

Word family

• glaucomatous

Related words

• glaucous
• -oma

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins