Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Ophthalmoscope
/ɒfˈθalməskəʊp/noun
An instrument for examining the retina and the interior of the eye through the pupil.
The Greek roots
ὀφθαλμός
ophthalmós
eye
σκοπεῖν
skopeîn
to look at, examine
Literally: “eye-looker”
The story of the word
Hermann von Helmholtz built the first practical one in 1851 while trying to explain to students why the pupil looks black, and in doing so opened the only place in the body where blood vessels and a nerve can be seen directly, without cutting. Diabetes and raised intracranial pressure are still caught that way. The awkward phth in the spelling is faithful Greek, and the reason so many people write opthalmologist.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
ophthalmologyexophthalmostelescopemicroscopeskeptic
In a sentence
The ophthalmoscope showed swelling at the optic disc.
She dimmed the lights before reaching for the ophthalmoscope.