Etymology

optics

O1P3T1I1C3S1

Today it means: The physics of light and vision: basic optical science. Full definition →

Medieval Latin opticus ← Ancient Greek ὀπτικός
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromὀπτικός
  2. Medieval Latin · derived fromopticus“optic, optical”
  3. English todayoptics

From Medieval Latin opticus (“optic, optical”), from Ancient Greek ὀπτικός (optikós), equivalent to optic + -ics.

Words from the same roots

Medieval Latinopticus all →

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.