cataract
English
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English cataract, cateract, cateracte, cataracta, from Latin cataracta (“waterfall, portcullis”), from Ancient Greek καταρράκτης (katarrháktēs), from καταράσσω (katarássō, “I pour down”), from κατα- (kata-, “down”) + ἀράσσω (arássō, “to strike, dash”).[1][2] Its pathological sense probably came from its alternative sense in Latin, “portcullis”, through French through the notion of “obstruction”, in this case, of vision.[2]
Pronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /ˈkætəɹækt/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
editcataract (plural cataracts)
- (obsolete) A waterspout.
- A large waterfall; steep rapids in a river.
- The cataracts on the Nile helped to compartment Upper Egypt.
- A flood of water.
- (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- (figuratively) An overwhelming downpour or rush.
- His cataract of eloquence
- 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Day-Dream. The Revival.”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 156:
- The palace bang’d, and buzz’d and clackt, / And all the long-pent stream of life / Dash’d downward in a cataract.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter I, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
- Were Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it?
- 2022 May 19, James Verini, “Surviving the Siege of Kharkiv”, in The New York Times Magazine[1]:
- As if on cue came a cataract of explosions. She turned on her heel and scurried back to the courtyard and down into the school’s basement. The dirt floor, low ceiling and unfinished stone walls were barely illuminated by candles and a dim string of green decorative lights.
- (pathology) A clouding of the lens in the eye leading to a decrease in vision.
- 1999, J. J. Gallo, J. Busby-Whitehead, W. Reichel, P. V. Rabins, R. A. Silliman, Reichel’s Care of the Elderly, page 563:
- Rarely, a dense, swollen neglected cataract precipitates an angle-closure glaucoma.
- 2022, “Rotoscope”, performed by Spiritbox:
- 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
Derived terms
editDescendants
editTranslations
editwaterfall — see also waterfall
|
downpour, flood
|
opacity of the lens in the eye
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
References
edit- ^ Cataract § Etymology
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “cataract”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Further reading
edit- cataract on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- List of waterfalls by type § Cataract on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Dutch
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Middle Dutch cataracte, from Latin cataracta, from Ancient Greek καταρράκτης (katarrháktēs).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editcataract f (plural cataracten, diminutive cataractje n)
Synonyms
editDescendants
editMiddle English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Latin cataracta, from Ancient Greek καταρράκτης (katarrháktēs).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editcataract (plural cateractes)
- (medicine) cataract
- (Christianity) A gate guarding the entrance to Heaven.
Descendants
editReferences
edit- “cataracte, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-20.
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