Polarizer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A tool used in optics that selectively allows light waves of a certain orientation to pass while absorbing or reflecting others
2. An optical device that affects light by permitting only wavelengths aligned in a specific direction to transmit, thus filtering out others
3. A device that influences electromagnetic waves by enabling only those aligned in a particular orientation to emerge while obstructing others through absorption or reflection

Etymology: The core of this word is simple: "polarize" is the base, and "-er" is the agent suffix that turns it into a noun for the thing doing the polarizing. The "-er" ending itself has a long road behind it. It descends from a Latin suffix, "-arius", which passed through Old French "-ier" and Middle English "-er", and it has been attached to English verbs ever since, which is why we have words like "teacher" and "driver" alongside "polarizer." The base word, "polarize", is the more interesting half. It comes from "polar", which refers to the poles of a magnet or of the Earth, and "polarize" carries the sense of giving something a fixed direction or orientation, as a magnet has two opposed poles. In optics, light waves were found to have a similar directional character: they can vibrate in a single plane. A device that lets through only waves vibrating in one orientation therefore came to be called a polarizer.

Synonyms: filter, modifier, separator