cataract

English

Devil's Throat, Iguaçu fall's largest cataract (2)

Etymology

From 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”). Its pathological sense probably came from its alternative sense in Latin, “portcullis”, through French through the notion of “obstruction”, in this case, of vision.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkætəɹækt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

cataract (plural cataracts)

1. (obsolete) A waterspout.
3. A large waterfall; steep rapids in a river.

   The cataracts on the Nile helped to compartment Upper Egypt.

4. A flood of water.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

5. (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.

6. (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

• aftercataract
• anticataract
• cataractal
• cataract bog
• cataracted
• cataractic
• cataractogenesis
• cataractogenic
• cataractogenous
• cataractous
• nuclear cataract
• postcataract

 

Descendants

• → Cebuano: katarak
• → Marshallese: kōtrāāk

Translations

waterfall — see also waterfall

• Bulgarian: водопа́д m (vodopád)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 大瀑布 (zh) (dà pùbù), 瀑布 (zh) (pùbù)

• Czech: katarakt m, stupňovaný vodopád m
• Danish: vandfald (da)
• Dutch: cataract (nl) m or n or f, waterval (nl) m
• Faroese: fossur (fo) m
• Finnish: vesiputous (fi)
• French: cataracte (fr) f
• German: Katarakt (de) m
• Greek: καταρράκτης (el) m (katarráktis)

  Ancient: καταρράκτης m (katarrháktēs)

• Hungarian: vízesés (hu), zuhatag (hu)
• Icelandic: foss (is) m
• Italian: cateratta (it), cascata (it) f, rapida (it) f
• Japanese: 瀑布 (ja) (ばくふ, bakufu)
• Khmer: ទឹកធ្លាក់ (tɨk tleak)
• Latin: cataracta f
• Maori: wairere, tāheke
• Norwegian: foss (no) m
• Portuguese: catarata (pt) f
• Romanian: cataractă (ro) f
• Russian: водопа́д (ru) m (vodopád)
• Spanish: catarata (es) f
• Swedish: vattenfall (sv) n
• Tagalog: malaking talon
• Ukrainian: водоспа́д (uk) m (vodospád)

downpour, flood

• Bulgarian: проливен дъжд m (proliven dǎžd), потоп (bg) m (potop)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 洪流 (zh) (hóngliú) (flood)

• Dutch: stortvloed (nl)
• Japanese: 激流 (ja) (げきりゅう, gekiryū)
• Russian: ли́вень (ru) m (lívenʹ), проливно́й дождь m (prolivnój doždʹ) (torrential rain), пото́п (ru) m (potóp) (flood)

opacity of the lens in the eye

• Bikol Central: muting
• Bulgarian: перде́ (bg) n (perdé), катарáкт m (katarákt)
• Catalan: cataracta f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 白內障 / 白内障 (zh) (báinèizhàng)

• Czech: šedý zákal (cs) m, katarakta f
• Dutch: cataract (nl) m or n or f, grijze staar
• Faroese: eygnastar n
• Finnish: kaihi (fi)
• French: cataracte (fr) f
• Galician: belida (gl) f, catarata (gl) f, pano (gl) m (animals)
• German: Katarakt (de) m, grauer Star (de) m (colloquial)
• Greek: καταρράκτης (el) m (katarráktis)

  Ancient: γλαύκωμα n (glaúkōma)

• Hungarian: hályog (hu), szürke hályog (hu), katarakta (hu)
• Icelandic: ský á auga n
• Ilocano: busa
• Indonesian: katarak (id)
• Irish: fionn m
• Italian: cataratta (it) f
• Ivatan: ruhaw
• Japanese: 白内障 (ja) (はくないしょう, hakunaishō)
• Khmer: ទឹកធ្លាក់ (tɨk tleak)
• Macedonian: перде n (perde)
• Malayalam: തിമിരം (ml) (timiraṁ)
• Middle English: cataract
• Navajo: anázhiin yiibaʼ
• Persian: آب‌مروارید (fa) (âb-morvârid)
• Polish: bielmo (pl) n, blachmal m (archaic)
• Portuguese: catarata (pt) f
• Russian: катара́кта (ru) f (katarákta)
• Scottish Gaelic: neul-sùla m
• Serbo-Croatian: мрена f, mrena (sh) f
• Shan: တေႃႈ (shn) (tāu)
• Spanish: catarata (es) f
• Swahili: mtoto wa jicho
• Swedish: katarakt (sv), grå starr (sv)
• Tagalog: katarata
• Thai: กระจก (th) (grà-jòk), ต้อกระจก
• Tocharian B: surme
• Turkish: akbasma (tr), aksu (tr), katarakt (tr)
• Ukrainian: катара́кта f (katarákta)
• Vietnamese: cườm khô
• Welsh: niwlen f
• Zulu: umthuqu class 3/4

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 백내장 (ko) (baengnaejang)

Further reading

• cataract on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• List of waterfalls by type § Cataract on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Dutch

Alternative forms

• katarakt (superseded)

Etymology

From Middle Dutch cataracte, from Latin cataracta, from Ancient Greek καταρράκτης (katarrháktēs).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌkaː.taːˈrɑkt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ca‧ta‧ract
• Rhymes: -ɑkt

Noun

cataract f (plural cataracten, diminutive cataractje n)

1. cataract, waterfall
2. (pathology) cataract

Synonyms

• (waterfall): waterval
• (cataract disease): grauwe staar

Descendants

• Afrikaans: katarak
• → Indonesian: katarak

Middle English

Alternative forms

• cateract, cataracta, cataracte, catheracte, catharacte, catharacta, catterak, catarac

Etymology

From Latin cataracta, from Ancient Greek καταρράκτης (katarrháktēs).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkatərakt(ə)/, /ˈkatərak/, /ˈkatəraktaː/

Noun

cataract (plural cateractes)

1. (medicine) cataract
2. (Christianity) A gate guarding the entrance to Heaven.

Descendants

• English: cataract
  • → Cebuano: katarak
  • → Marshallese: kōtrāāk
• Scots: cataract (rare, obsolete)

References

• “cataracte, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-20.