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Origin and history of telescope

telescope(n.)

"optical instrument by means of which distant objects appear nearer and larger," 1640s, from Italian telescopio (Galileo, 1611), and Modern Latin telescopium (Kepler, 1613), both from Greek tēleskopos "far-seeing," from tēle- "far" (from PIE root *kwel- (2) "far" in space or time) + -skopos "watcher" (from PIE root *spek- "to observe").

Said to have been coined by Prince Cesi, founder and head of the Roman Academy of the Lincei (Galileo was a member).

Used in English in Latin form from 1619. An earlier English term for a telescope was trunk (1610s) in the "box, case" sense, short for perspective trunk, The dim constellation Telescopium was added to the sky atlases by La Caille (1752).

also from 1640s

telescope(v.)

"force together one inside the other" (in the manner of the sliding tubes of some telescopes), 1867, from telescope (n.). Related: Telescoped (1861); telescoping.

also from 1867

Entries linking to telescope

kaleidoscope(n.)

"optical instrument creating and exhibiting, by reflection, a variety of beautiful colors and symmetrical forms," 1817, literally "observer of beautiful forms," coined by its inventor, Scottish scientist David Brewster (1781-1868), from Greek kalos "beautiful, beauteous" (see Callisto) + eidos "shape" (see -oid) + -scope, on model of telescope, etc. They sold by the thousands in the few years after their invention, but Brewster failed to secure a patent.

Figurative meaning "constantly changing pattern" is first attested 1819 in Lord Byron, whose publisher had sent him one of the toys. As a verb, from 1891. A kaleidophone (1827) was invented by English inventor Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875) to make sound waves visible.

scope(n.2)

[instrument for viewing] 1872, shortened from telescope, microscope, etc., in which the element (Latinized) is from Greek skopein "to look" (from PIE root *spek- "to observe"). Earlier used as a shortening of horoscope (c. 1600). Extended to radar screens, etc., by 1945 as a shortening of oscilloscope.