Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Otoscope
/ˈəʊtəskəʊp/noun
A handheld instrument with a light and a magnifying lens used to inspect the ear canal and eardrum.
The Greek roots
οὖς
oûs
ear
σκοπεῖν
skopeîn
to look at, examine
Literally: “ear-looker”
The story of the word
The stem is the genitive ὠτός rather than the nominative οὖς, which is why English has oto- and not ous-. Doctors had been peering into ears with speculum and candlelight for centuries; the lit funnel we know arrived in the mid-nineteenth century. The same root sits in otitis, the ear infection every parent learns to recognise before they can spell it.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
otitisotologytelescopemicroscopeskeptic
In a sentence
She warmed the otoscope tip before going anywhere near his ear.
One look through the otoscope and the diagnosis was obvious.