| 释义 |
optics|ˈɒptɪks|
[A pl. of optic a., used subst. to render med.L. optica pl. neut., a. Gr. τὰ ὀπτικά, optical matters, optics (Aristotle, Ptolemy, etc.): see -ics. Besides this, Greek had also ἡ ὀπτική (sc. θεωρία) the theory of the laws of sight, whence L. opticē in Vitruvius.
The med.L. optica occurs c 1160 in the Sicilians, Henricus Aristippus who speaks of Euclidis Optica, and Eugenius who translated from Arabic the Ὀπτικά of Ptolemy under the title Optica Ptolomæi. Optica appears later as a fem. sing., and still in 16th c.; thence OIt., Sp., Pg. optica, It. ottica, F. l'optique sing. fem., also Eng. optic n. sing. In the 16th c. was also used L. opticē after Gr.]
The science of sight, or of the medium of sight, i.e. light; that branch of physics which deals with the properties and phenomena of light. Plural in origin and form, and formerly so construed (‘the Optics’); but now always as singular; less usually made singular in form (like F. l'optique, OIt., Sp., Pg. optica): see optic n. 4.
1579T. Digges Stratioticos 189 Such was his Fœlicitie and happie successe..also in the Optikes and Catoptrikes, that he was able by Perspectiue Glasses..to discouer euery particularitie in the Countrey rounde aboute. 1625N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. xi. (1635) 244 The Optickes teach vs, all things are seene in the places opposite to the eye. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 374 Alhazen cognominall unto him that wrote his history;..he was contemporary unto Avicenna, and hath left sixteene bookes of Opticks. 1666Pepys Diary 17 Oct., I do not see that he minds optickes or mathematiques of any sort. 1726Butler Serm. Rolls Chap. ii. 27 The Science of Opticks, deduced from ocular Experiments. 1812–16J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art I. 407 Optics treats of the mechanical properties of light. 1831Brewster Nat. Magic i. (1833) 4 Of all the sciences Optics is the most fertile in marvellous expedients. 1872Ruskin Eagle's Nest §97 To-day we are to speak of optics, the science of seeing. |