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Origin and history of telescopic

telescopic(adj.)

"of or pertaining to a telescope; that can be seen with the aid of a telescope," 1705, from telescope (n.) + -ic. Related: Telescopical; telescopically.

also from 1705

Entries linking to telescopic

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).

-ic

Middle English -ik, -ick, word-forming element making adjectives, "having to do with, having the nature of, being, made of, caused by, similar to," from French -ique and directly from Latin -icus or from cognate Greek -ikos "in the manner of; pertaining to." From PIE adjective suffix *-(i)ko, which also yielded Slavic -isku, adjectival suffix indicating origin, the source of the -sky (Russian -skii) in many surnames. In chemistry, indicating a higher valence than names in -ous (first in benzoic, 1791).

In Middle English and after often spelled -ick, -ike, -ique. Variant forms in -ick (critick, ethick) were common in early Modern English and survived in English dictionaries into early 19c. This spelling was supported by Johnson but opposed by Webster, who prevailed.

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    awkward
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