laser
/ˈleɪzə
/- It has led to computers, lasers and nuclear reactors, and it tells us why the Sun shines and why the ground beneath our feet is solid.
- The structure has potential for the development of active optical devices such as lasers and passive components.
- The surgery involves lifting a small flap of corneal tissue and lasering onto the deeper cornea beneath.
- While he was lasering, he remarked the patient had started bleeding.
- Every few years, my test results would require freezing, or burning, or lasering mutating pre-cancerous cells away.
Origin
1960s: acronym from light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, on the pattern of maser.
radar from [M20]:
This system for detecting objects by sending out radio waves which are reflected back was developed in the 1930s. The name comes from the opening letters of radio detection and ranging, and was coined in 1941. Police started using radar traps to detect speeding motorists in the early 1960s. In the Second World War the myth that pilots ate lots of carrots to help them see in the dark was spread to explain how they could detect enemy planes, as radar was still a secret. Other words have been coined on the pattern of radar, such as lidar (mid 20th century), which works like radar, but uses light from lasers (mid 20th century)—laser itself being an acronym from ‘light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation’.