Refractor

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An instrument that redirects light by changing its path through refraction to produce focused visuals
2. A device that alters the trajectory of light through refraction to form images of various objects
3. A tool designed to bend light rays through refraction in order to create clear images of distant or small objects

Etymology: The refractor is a telescope that gathers light through lenses rather than mirrors, and its name is simply a combination of two existing English pieces: the verb "refract," meaning to bend a ray of light as it passes from one medium into another, and the suffix "-or," which turns a verb into a noun for the thing or agent that performs the action. A refractor, in other words, is the instrument that does the refracting. The "-or" ending has a longer journey than the word it attaches to. It descends from a Latin agent suffix, "-tor," which passed through Old French as "-eor" and entered Middle English as "-our," the spelling English later simplified in many words. "Refract" itself comes from Latin "refractus," the past participle of "refringere," meaning "to break open" or "to break up," which describes exactly what happens to light when a lens bends it. The instrument was named for that bending, and the name reads like a sentence describing how it works.

Synonyms: lens, optical device