cataract
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkætəɹækt/
ipa: /ˈkætəˌɹæk(t)/
Forms: form: cataracts
Etymology: From Late Middle English cataract, cataracta, cateract, cateracte (“(medicine) clouding of the lens in the eye”), from Old French cataracte (“clouding of the lens in the eye”), and then either:
* from its etymon Latin cataracta (“portcullis”) (in the sense of something blocking vision as a portcullis blocks a gateway), from Ancient Greek καταρ(ρ)άκτης (katar(rh)áktēs, “act of rushing down; portcullis”) (see further at etymology 1); or
* from clāthrāta (in fenestra clāthrāta (“window grating”)), an inflected form of clāthrātus (“grated, latticed, clathrate”), from clāthrī (“grate, lattic”) + -ātus (suffix denoting possession of something, forming adjectives from nouns). Clāthrī is derived from Doric Greek κλᾳ̃θρα (klãithra), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kleh₂w- (“crook, hook; peg; to close something”).
Senses: examples: text: Others did fortifie and rampire their Walls, […] assured the Port-culleys, fasten'd the Herses, Sarasinesks and Cataracks, placed their Centries, and doubled their Patrouilee.
ref: 1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], translated by [Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux], “The Author’s Prologue to the Third Book”, in The Works of Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua, and His Sonne Pantagruel. […], London: […] [Thomas Ratcliffe and Edward Mottershead] for Richard Baddeley, […], →OCLC; republished in volume I, London: […] Navarre Society […], [1948], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 315:
glosses: Synonym of portcullis (“a gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the gateway of a castle, a fort, etc.”); also, a window grating.
synonyms: word: portcullis
extra: (“a gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the gateway of a castle, a fort, etc.”); also, a window grating.
examples: text: [T]her is a Caratact which doth light vpon the eyes of a Hawke, whome we may tearme a ſuffuſion, a miſchiefe not ſafely remoued, and diuers times impoſſible to be recured, as namely whẽ [when] it is growen too thicke, and ouerlong hath bin ſuffered in the eye, without ſeeking remedie for it: […]
ref: 1575, George Turberuile [i.e.. George Turberville], “Of the Cataract in the Eyes of a Hawke”, in The Booke of Faulconrie or Hauking, for the Onely Delight and Plerasure of All Noblemen and Gentlemen: […], London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC, page 235:
text: Rarely, a dense, swollen neglected cataract precipitates an angle-closure glaucoma.
ref: 1999, Cynthia Mattox, Helen K. Wu, Joel S. Schuman, “Ocular Disorders of Aging”, in Joseph J. Gallo, Jan Busby-Whitehead, Peter V. Rabins, Rebecca A. Silliman, John B. Murphy, William Reichel, editors, Reichel’s Care of the Elderly: Clinical Aspects of Aging, 5th edition, Philadelphia, Pa.; Baltimore, Md.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, →ISBN, section I (Care of the Elderly Patient: Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Management), page 563, column 2:
text: Shallow, this is what I created / Splayed out skeletons in the cracks in the pavement / And now, can you feel the injection back behind those cloudy eyes? / In-between every cataract, a projection of my life
ref: 2022 June 22, “Rotoscope”, in Rotoscope (Rise 510-1), performed by Spiritbox, Beaverton, Or.: Rise Records:
topics: medicine
ophthalmology
pathology
sciences
glosses: A clouding of the lens in the eye leading to a decrease in vision.
examples: text: Thoſe filmes vvhich darkened the eye of the mindes, are remoued, thoſe thicke Cataracts of earthly vanities are diſperſed and diſpelled, and a nevv light into a nevv heart infuſed.
ref: 1631, Richard Brathwait, “Decency”, in The English Gentlewoman, Drawne out to the Full Body: […], London: […] B. Alsop and T. Fawcet, for Michaell Sparke, […], →OCLC, page 86:
topics: medicine
ophthalmology
pathology
sciences
glosses: A clouding of the lens in the eye leading to a decrease in vision.
Something which obscures.
examples: text: Some modern Pantagruelists, to shun and avoid that manual Labour, which such a separating and partitional Work would of necessity require, employ certain Catarratick Instruments, […] and athwart those Cataracts they break and bruise to very Trash the woody parcels [of the fictional herb “pantagruelion”], thereby to preserve the better the Fibres, which are the precious and excellent parts.
ref: 1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], translated by [Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux], “How the Famous Pantagruelion ought to be Prepared and Wrought”, in The Works of Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua, and His Sonne Pantagruel. […], London: […] [Thomas Ratcliffe and Edward Mottershead] for Richard Baddeley, […], →OCLC; republished in volume II, London: […] Navarre Society […], [1948], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 60:
topics: business
manufacturing
textiles
glosses: A tool used for breaking flax; a brake.
Derived terms: aftercataract
anticataract
cataractal
cataractogenesis
cataractogenic
cataractogenous
cataractous
nuclear cataract
postcataract