Etymologically
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optic

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈɒp.tɪk/[1]
  • US: /ˈɑp.tɪk/[1]

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
  • 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