Telescopic

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /tɛlɪˈskɒpɪk/

Definitions

1. Capable of modification in length through sliding parts while also referring to instruments optimized for clearly viewing distant objects or understanding remote ideas within a structured framework
2. Able to extend in length through sliding components and also pertaining to devices that enhance the visibility of remote objects or conceptualize distant ideas in a meaningful way
3. Having the ability to be lengthened or shortened by sliding segments ; pertaining to devices designed for magnifying or seeing objects far away

Etymology: The word "telescope" was coined in 1611 by the Greek scholar Giovanni Demisiani, who attended a banquet in Rome honouring Galileo's instrument and needed a name for it. Galileo had been calling his device by other names, and "telescope" combined the Greek "têle", meaning "far off", with "skopein", "to look at" or "to view". So the instrument was named for seeing at a distance before anyone had thought to use the name for anything else. "Telescopic" is simply that coinage given an adjectival ending. The suffix comes from Latin "-icus", which passed through Old French "-ique" into Middle English as "-ik" and into modern English as "-ic". Its first meaning was therefore close to "relating to a telescope": a telescopic sight or lens. The figurative senses, such as a telescopic view of a subject, followed from that base, and the sense of parts sliding inside one another came from the way the tube of a telescope extends.

Synonyms: magnifying, zooming, focusing

Antonyms: diminutive, microscopic