microscope

English

A compound microscope

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *mey-der.?

Ancient Greek μῑκρός (mīkrós)

Proto-Indo-European *speḱ-

Proto-Indo-European *-yeti

Proto-Indo-European *spéḱyeti

Proto-Hellenic *sképťomai

Ancient Greek σκέπτομαι (sképtomai)

Proto-Hellenic *-os

Ancient Greek -ος (-os)

Ancient Greek -ός (-ós)

Ancient Greek σκοπός (skopós)

Ancient Greek -έω (-éō)

Ancient Greek σκοπέω (skopéō)

Proto-Indo-European *-yōs

Proto-Italic *-jōs

Old Latin -ios

Latin -ius

Latin -ium

Latin mīcroscopiumlbor.

Italian microscopiobor.

English microscope

From New Latin microscopium and Italian microscopio, from Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós, “small”) + σκοπέω (skopéō, “I look at”), equivalent to micro- +‎ -scope.

Pronunciation

• enPR: mīʹkrə-skōp'
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌskəʊp/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌskoʊp/

  • Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: mi‧cro‧scope

Noun

microscope (plural microscopes)

1. An optical instrument used for observing small objects.
   • 1837, The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, volume 23, page 222:

     That he might ascertain whether any of the cloths of ancient Egypt were made of hemp, M. Dutrochet has examined with the microscope the weavable filaments of this last vegetable.

   • 1978, Jan Romein, The Watershed of Two Eras: Europe in 1900, page 303:

     Elsewhere, professionals could enthuse over new precision instruments capable, for instance, of measuring weights down to a tenth of a milligram, or over a host of self-registering thermometers and barometers, microscopes, typewriters, calculators and all sorts of technical and musical devices, including automatic concertinas, edeophones, auto-harps, bigophones and other long-forgotten objects.

2. Any instrument for imaging very small objects (such as an electron microscope).

Derived terms

• atomic force microscope
• bimicroscope
• biomicroscope
• colpomicroscope
• compound microscope
• cryomicroscope
• cryo-transmission electron microscope
• dissecting microscope
• electromicroscope
• electron microscope
• endomicroscope
• epifluorescence microscope
• field emission microscope
• fluorescence microscope
• fluoromicroscope
• interference microscope
• light microscope
• microscopal
• microscope slide
• microscopial
• microscopic
• microscopical
• microscopist
• microscopy
• monochromated scanning transmission electron microscope
• optical microscope
• otomicroscope
• petrographic microscope
• phase contrast microscope
• photomicroscope
• reflecting microscope
• scanning electron microscope
• scanning transmission electron microscope
• scanning tunneling microscope
• simple microscope
• solar microscope
• spectromicroscope
• stereo microscope
• stereomicroscope
• stimulated emission depletion microscope
• supermicroscope
• telemicroscope
• transmission electron microscope
• ultramicroscope
• under the microscope
• videomicroscope
• X-ray microscope

 

Translations

an optical instrument

• Abkhaz: амикроскоп (amikʼroskʼopʼ)
• Afrikaans: mikroskoop (af)
• Albanian: mikroskop (sq) m
• Arabic: مِجْهَر m (mijhar)
• Armenian: մանրադիտակ (hy) (manraditak)
• Aromanian: microscopu
• Asturian: microscopiu m
• Avar: микроско́п (mikroskóp)
• Azerbaijani: mikroskop (az), xürdəbin
• Bashkir: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Basque: mikroskopio (eu)
• Belarusian: мікраско́п m (mikraskóp)
• Bengali: অণুবীক্ষণযন্ত্র (onubikkhonojontro)
• Bihari: खुर्दबीन, सूक्ष्मदर्शी
• Breton: mikroskop m
• Bulgarian: микроско́п m (mikroskóp)
• Burmese: မိုက္ကရိုစကုပ် (muikka.ruica.kup)
• Carpathian Rusyn: микроско́п m (mykroskóp)
• Catalan: microscopi (ca) m
• Chechen: микроско́п (mikroskóp)
• Cherokee: ᎾᎥᏂᎨ ᎠᎪᎵᎡᏙᏗ (navnige agoliedodi)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 顯微鏡 / 显微镜 (hin² mei⁴ geng³)

  Eastern Min: 顯微鏡 / 显微镜 (hiēng-mì-giáng)

  Hakka: 顯微鏡 / 显微镜 (hién-mì-kiang)

  Hokkien: 顯微鏡 / 显微镜 (zh-min-nan) (hián-bî-kiàⁿ)

  Mandarin: 顯微鏡 / 显微镜 (zh) (xiǎnwēijìng)

• Chuvash: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Crimean Tatar: mikroskop, hurdebin
• Czech: mikroskop (cs) m
• Danish: mikroskop (da) n
• Dargwa: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Dutch: microscoop (nl) m
• Eastern Mari: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Erzya: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Esperanto: mikroskopo
• Estonian: mikroskoop
• Finnish: mikroskooppi (fi)
• French: microscope (fr) m
• Friulian: microscop m
• Galician: microscopio (gl) m
• Georgian: მიკროსკოპი (miḳrosḳoṗi)
• German: Mikroskop (de) n
• Greek: μικροσκόπιο (el) n (mikroskópio)
• Haitian Creole: mikwoskòp
• Hebrew: מִיקְרוֹסְקוֹפִּ (he) m (mikroscop)
• Hindi: ख़ुर्दबीन f (xurdabīn), सूक्ष्मदर्शी (hi) m (sūkṣmadarśī)
• Hungarian: mikroszkóp (hu)
• Icelandic: smásjá (is) f
• Ido: mikroskopo (io)
• Indonesian: mikroskop (id)
• Irish: micreascóp m
• Italian: microscopio (it) m
• Jamaican Creole: maikroskuop
• Japanese: 顕微鏡 (ja) (けんびきょう, kenbikyō), マイクロスコープ (ja) (maikurosukōpu)
• Javanese: mikroskop
• Kannada: ಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮದರ್ಶಕ (kn) (sūkṣmadarśaka), ಸೀರುತೋರ‍್ಪುಕ (kn) (sīrutōra‍puka), ಮೈಕ್ರೋಸ್ಕೋಪು (kn) (maikrōskōpu)
• Kashubian: mikroskòp m
• Kazakh: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Khmer: អតិសុខុមទស្សន៍ (ʼaʼtesokhomĕəʼtŭəh), មីក្រូទស្សន៍ (miikrootʊəh)
• Korean: 현미경(顯微鏡) (ko) (hyeonmigyeong)
• Kumyk: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: وردبین (wirdbîn)

  Northern Kurdish: mîkroskop (ku), hûrbîn (ku)

• Kyrgyz: микроскоп (ky) (mikroskop)
• Latin: mīcroscopium n
• Latvian: mikroskops m
• Lezgi: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Limburgish: microscoap
• Lithuanian: mikroskopas m
• Macedonian: ми́кроскоп (mk) m (míkroskop)
• Malay: mikroskop (ms), teropong halus, teropong tuma, teropong kuman, teropong hama
• Malayalam: സൂക്ഷ്മദർശിനി (ml) (sūkṣmadaṟśini)
• Manx: mynreayrtane
• Maori: karaihe whakanui, karuwhakarahi
• Marathi: सूक्ष्मदर्शक (sūkṣmadarśak)
• Mongolian: микроскоп (mn) (mikroskop)
• Navajo: chʼosh doo yitʼíinii bee nílʼíní
• Neapolitan: micruscopio m
• Northern Sotho: maekrosekôpo
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mikroskop n

  Nynorsk: mikroskop n

• Occitan: microscòpi (oc) m
• Ossetian: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Ottoman Turkish: [script needed] (hurdebîn)
• Persian: ریزبین (fa) (riz-bin), میکروسکوپ (fa) (mikroskop)
• Piedmontese: microscòpi m
• Polish: mikroskop (pl) m
• Portuguese: microscópio (pt) m
• Romanian: microscop (ro) n
• Russian: микроско́п (ru) m (mikroskóp)
• Saterland Frisian: Mikroskop n
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ми̏кроскоп m

  Roman: mȉkroskop (sh) m, sitnòzor (sh) m (Croatia)

• Shona: dongoradatu
• Sinhalese: අන්වීක්ෂය (anwīkṣaya)
• Slovak: mikroskop (sk) m
• Slovene: mikroskop (sl) m
• Somali: sheybaar
• Spanish: microscopio (es) m
• Sundanese: mikroskop
• Swahili: hadubini (sw), darubini ya vidudu
• Swedish: mikroskop (sv) n
• Tagalog: mikroskopyo, miksipat
• Tajik: резбин (rezbin)
• Tamil: நுண்நோக்கி (nuṇnōkki)
• Tatar: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Telugu: సూక్ష్మదర్శిని (te) (sūkṣmadarśini)
• Thai: กล้องจุลทรรศน์ (th) (glong jun la taad)
• Tibetan: ཆེ་ཤེལ (che shel)
• Turkish: mikroskop (tr)
• Ukrainian: мікроско́п m (mikroskóp)
• Urdu: خردبین (xurd-bīn), خرد بین (xurd-bīn)
• Uyghur: مىكروسكوپ (mikroskop)
• Uzbek: mikroskop (uz)
• Vietnamese: kính hiển vi (vi) (鏡顯微)
• Volapük: daluskop (vo)
• Võro: mikroskuup, fähküsilm
• Waray-Waray: mikroskopyo
• Welsh: mwyadur m, microsgop m
• West Frisian: mikroskoop n
• Western Panjabi: مائکروسکوپ (mā'ikroskop)
• Yakut: микроскоп (mikroskop)
• Yiddish: מיקראָסקאָפּ m (mikroskop)
• Zazaki: mikroskop

See also

• magnifying glass
• telescope

Verb

microscope (third-person singular simple present microscopes, present participle microscoping, simple past and past participle microscoped)

1. To examine with a microscope, to put under a microscope (literally or figuratively).

   Synonym: microscopize

   • 1897, The Clinical Journal, page 200:

     It has a strong germicidal action, as can be verified by staining and microscoping the pus, the characteristic micro-organisms disappearing rapidly under its use.

   • 2012, E.J. Zingg, D.M.A. Wallace, Bladder Cancer, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 79:

     Wright (1959), using the standard and less laborious technique of microscoping the centrifuged deposit of a sample of urine, found that 21.6% of males attending life insurance examinations had more than 10 red blood cells per high power field (rbc/hpf).

Translations

Translations

• German: mikroskopieren (de)

French

Etymology

From micro- +‎ -scope.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi.kʁɔs.kɔp/

• Audio (Lyon):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔp

Noun

microscope m (plural microscopes)

1. microscope

Derived terms

• microscopie
• microscopique

Further reading

• “microscope”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.