presbytian.

Brit.

/prɛzˈbɪtɪə/,

/prɛsˈbɪtɪə/, U.S.

/prɛzˈbɪdiə/,

/prɛsˈbɪdiə/

Origin: A borrowing from Latin. Etymon: Latin presbytia.

Etymology: < post-classical Latin presbytia < ancient Greek πρεσβύτης old man (see presbyta n.) + classical Latin -ia -ia suffix¹. Compare French presbytie (1820).

Now rare.

= presbyopia n.In quot. 1974 figurative.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of eye > disordered vision > [noun] > long-sightedness

presbytia1654

long sight1737

longsightedness1748

presbyopia1767

far-sightedness1846

presbyopy1862

presbytism1863

hypermetropia1868

hyperopia1886

1654 W. Charleton Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana iii. iii. 162 The most common Diminutions of Sight, and those that may best expect relief from Dioptrical Aphorisms, and the use of Glasses; are only Two: Presbytia, and Myopia.

1737 H. Bracken Farriery Improved (1738) xii. 116 Presbytia..is a Distemper just opposite to the former [sc. myopia]; and is when the Cornea, &c., are not so Convex, as they were in Youth.

1822 J. M. Good Study Med. III. 207 The third variety or that produced by old age, constitutes the presbytia, and presbyopia of medical writers.

1974 R. Ford tr. J. Ortega y Gasset in Crit. Inq. 1 434 How to get to them if presbytia made us stumble with every step, blind to the immediate and close by?

Derivatives

† presbytic adj. and n. [compare French presbytique (1855)] Obsolete rare = presbyopic adj. and n.

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1850 De Bow's Rev. Nov. 574/2 Such maladies as grow out of the abuse of glasses, and of which no one had previously spoken, as presbytic amplyopia [sic].

1851 Sci. Amer. 13 Dec. 104/1 Periscopic glasses..may be advantageously employed, convex-concave for the presbytic.

ˈpresbytism n. [after French presbytisme (1803)] rare = presbyopia n.

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