optic

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English optik, also spelled obtik,^[2] borrowed from Middle French optique,^[3][4][5][2] and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin opticus (“of sight or seeing”),^[3][4][2][6] from Ancient Greek ὀπτικός (optikós, “of or relating to sight”),^[3][4][7][8] from ὀπτός (optós, “seen, visible”),^[3][4][9] from the stem ὀπ- (op-), also seen in ὤψ (ṓps, “eye, face”) and ὄψομαι (ópsomai, “I shall see”).^[3][8][7] The French word is recorded in Old French as obtique in 1314, in the phrase for the optic nerves, and as optique from the 16th century;^[3][4] the Anglo-Norman form is recorded from the second quarter of the 13th century, meaning "relating to the eye".^[10] The Latin adjective is found in a British source about 1115, also in the phrase for the optic nerves.^[3] The Greek stem goes back to Proto-Indo-European *okʷ- (“to see”),^[4][6][7] the base of Latin oculus (“eye”) and of eye.^[3][9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to the eye or to vision, chiefly in the names of parts of the eye and brain: probably before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie.^[3][2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century,^[4] and Collins and Dictionary.com to the 16th.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

From the anatomical sense, the adjective widened to the science of light and vision (1569) and to sight in general (1600), a sense the OED now calls rare.^[3] From 1607 it described instruments that help vision or work by means of light.^[3] The noun began in 1563 as a name for the science of optics,^[3][5] which Merriam-Webster thinks probably translates Italian ottica, from the Latin and Greek words for that science.^[5] From 1599 an optic was a lens, eyeglass or telescope, and later a camera lens; the plural optics for the optical parts of an instrument dates from 1942.^[3] From 1601, in Ben Jonson, it was also a word for the eye, usually in the plural:^[3][13] the OED's older edition called this "formerly the learned and elegant term; afterwards pedantic, and now usually humorous".^[4] Since 1958 an optic has also been a way of seeing or interpreting something, a perspective.^[3] In Britain Optic is a trademark for a device that measures out spirits from an upturned bottle.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – of or relating to the eye, in a translation of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie.^[3][2]
• 1563 – noun, the science of optics (obsolete by 1869).^[3]
• 1569 – relating to the science of optics.^[3]
• 1599 – noun, a lens or an optical instrument.^[3]
• 1600 – of or relating to sight; visual.^[3][4]
• 1601 – noun, the eye, usually in the plural.^[3]
• 1607 – of an instrument, made to help vision.^[3]
• 1613 – noun, a person skilled in optics (obsolete by 1676).^[3]
• 1873 – of a disease, affecting the eyes.^[3]
• 1942 – optics, the optical parts of an instrument.^[3]
• 1958 – a viewpoint or perspective.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the eye or to vision: the optic nerve.^[11][5][3]
2. Relating to optics; optical.^[11][5]

Noun

1. A lens, prism or mirror of an optical instrument; in the plural, the optical parts of an instrument.^[5][3]
2. (humorous) An eye.^[11][5][3]
3. A way of seeing or interpreting something; a perspective.^[3]
4. (British, trademark) Optic: a device fixed to an upturned bottle that pours out a measured amount of spirits.^[11]
5. (obsolete, 1563–1869) The science of optics.^[3][5]

Word family

• optical
• opticist
• panoptic
• preoptic
• postoptic
• supraoptic
• suboptic
• fiberoptic

Related words

• optics
• optician
• autopsy
• ocular
• eye

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com