catoptric

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κατοπτικός, from κάτοπτρον (katoptron, “mirror”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /kaˈtɒptɹɪk/

Adjective

catoptric

1. of, relating to, or produced by mirrors or reflections
   • 1989, Nick Cave, And the Ass Saw the Angel:

     It leaned, toppled forward, and loomed out over the water's grim catoptric surface that stretched before her, and then completing a half-somersault plunged headlong into the shallows of the abysmal, baptismal bilge.

Noun

catoptric (plural catoptrics)

1. (now only in the plural) The branch of optics dealing with reflection.
   • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, I.iii.3:

     'tis ordinary to see strange uncouth sights by catoptrics; who knows not that if in a dark room the light be admitted at one only little hole, and a paper or glass put upon it, the sun shining will represent on the opposite wall all such objects as are illuminated by his rays?