Etymologically
Log in

telescope

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:53. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈtɛl.ɪ.skəʊp/[1]
  • US: /ˈtɛl.əˌskoʊp/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian telescopio, together with telescopium,[2][3][4][5][6] from Ancient Greek τηλεσκόπος (tēleskópos, “far-seeing”),[2][3][4][7] formed from τῆλε (têle, “far off”), the source of tele-, and -σκόπος (-skópos, “watcher”), related to σκοπέω (skopéō, “to look at”).[3][4][7][8] The Italian word appears first in a letter of 13 August 1611 from Federico Cesi, founder of the Accademia dei Lincei, to Galileo, and Galileo used it later that year;[2][3] Giambattista della Porta credited Cesi with the name in 1613.[2][8] The Latin form is recorded from 1612,[2] and Barnhart and Etymonline mention its use by Kepler in 1613.[4][3] The French word télescope is recorded from 1627.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An instrument for viewing distant objects: 1619, in John Bainbridge's account of the comet of 1618,[2][7] where Etymonline says it still had its Latin form.[3] Barnhart dates the Italian form telescopio in English to 1648, in Boyle, and the form telescope to 1656.[4][9] An earlier English name for the instrument was trunk or perspective trunk (1610s).[3]

Semantic evolution

The noun was used figuratively from 1650,[2] and Johnson (1755) defined it as "a long glass by which distant objects are viewed".[10] The verb appeared in the 18th century: a rare slang sense "to watch someone from a distance" (1756–1891) was followed by "to look through a telescope" (1832).[2][11] The sense from the sliding tubes of a hand telescope, to force or slide one part into another, is recorded from 1844 transitively[2] and 1866 intransitively,[2] and became common in reports of railway collisions, in which carriages were driven into one another;[3][4] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date it to 1867.[3][7] The figurative sense, to compress or condense, followed in 1886.[2] In Yorkshire dialect the noun was used for a kaleidoscope.[12]

Timeline

  • 1619 – the instrument, in Latin form.[2][3]
  • 1648 – telescopio.[4]
  • 1650 – figurative use of the noun.[2]
  • 1656 – the form telescope.[4]
  • 1756 – verb, to watch from a distance (slang, obsolete).[2]
  • 1832 – verb, to look through a telescope.[2]
  • 1844 – verb, to force one thing into another.[2]
  • 1866 – verb, to collapse lengthways.[2]
  • 1886 – verb, to condense or compress.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An optical instrument with lenses, or lenses and mirrors, that makes distant objects look nearer and larger: They watched Saturn's rings through a small telescope.
  2. A radio telescope or other instrument that gathers radiation from distant sources.

Verb

  1. To slide or be pushed together, one part into another, like the tubes of a hand telescope; to collapse lengthways: The front carriages telescoped in the crash.
  2. To make shorter or more compact; to condense: The course telescopes three years' study into one.

Word family

  • telescopic
  • telescopy

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)