telescope

Meanings

Noun

• A monocular optical instrument that magnifies distant objects, especially in astronomy.
• Any instrument used in astronomy for observing distant objects (such as a radio telescope).
• A retractable tubular support for lights.

Verb

• To extend or contract in the manner of a telescope.
• To slide or pass one within another, after the manner of the sections of a small telescope or spyglass.
• To come into collision, as railway cars, in such a manner that one runs into another.

Related

Similar words

• optical telescope
• radio telescope
• reflecting telescope
• refracting telescope
• terrestrial telescope
• X-ray telescope

Origin

• tele- + -scope.
• From Latin tēlescopium, from Ancient Greek τηλεσκόπος ("far-seeing"), from τῆλε + σκοπέω.
• Coined in 1611 by the Greek mathematician Giovanni Demisiani for one of Galileo Galilei's instruments presented at a banquet at the Accademia dei Lincei. Telescopium.