perspicil

English

Etymology

From Latin perspicilla, from perspicere (“to look through”).

Noun

perspicil (plural perspicils)

1. (obsolete) An optical glass; a telescope.
   • a. 1649, Richard Crashaw, On the Frontispiece of Isaacson's Chronology:

     Chronology
     (Sharp-sighted as the eagle's eye, that can
     Out-stare the broad-beam'd Day's meridian)
     Will have a perspicil to find her out

References

• “perspicil”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.