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Seeing & Light

The openings, objects and images that gave us words for seeing.

An opening could be an eye in a wall, a piece of glass could be named after a seed, and a room could become the name of a machine. These words trace how people gathered light, brought an image into focus and learned to keep what they saw.

In approximate historical order, from the origins and events behind the words.

  1. window (n.)the wind's eye
  2. focus (n.)once a hearth
  3. lens (n.)shaped like a lentil
  4. camera (n.)once a room

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