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> The author didn’t have to reach for Icelandic since “microscope” is already from Greek with the same construction small/watching. Is it really from Greek, th
by tablespoon 5y ago
> The author didn’t have to reach for Icelandic since “microscope” is already from Greek with the same construction small/watching.
Is it really from Greek, through? My understanding is that it was coined in some non-Greek language from Greek roots, which isn't quite the same thing. Google translate gives "smásjá" as Icelandic for microscope, which looks like it might be a compound using the languages "native" vocabulary ("smá sjá" translates as "little see").
- filmor 5y agoAccording to Wikipedia, the name Microscope was derived from the earlier "Telescope", which in turn was coined shortly after the object was invented: > Galileo's instrument was the first to be given the name "telescope". The name was invented by the Greek poet/theologian Giovanni Demisiani at a banquet held on April 14, 1611 by Prince Federico Cesi to make Galileo Galilei a member of the Accademia dei Lincei. The word was created from the Greek tele = 'far' and skopein = 'to look or see'; teleskopos = 'far-seeing'. The primary source for this is "Rosen, Edward, The Naming of the Telescope (1947)".