Pronounced: puh-RYE-uh-t(uh)l, adj
Notes: I was our of date on one definition, and didn’t know the other
Yesterday’s word
The word optics means
- the study of light, vision, etc
- the way a situation or action is perceived by the public
First usage
The first meaning came about in the mid-1500s; the second meaning in from the 1970s (quite a spread!)
Background / Comments
The first meaning I suspect most people know, but I’ve not run across the word using the second meaning. Perhaps it came about from the way the public “sees” a thing.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 