specular

English edit

From Latin speculāris, from speculum; and in some senses from speculārī (“to watch, observe”). Some later senses via French spéculaire.

specular (comparative more specular, superlative most specular)

Pertaining to mirrors; mirror-like, reflective. [from 17th c.]
- 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 14:
  a perfect likeness would rather suggest a specular, and hence speculatory, phenomenon [...].
(medicine) Of or relating to a speculum; conducted with the aid of a speculum.
a specular examination
Assisting sight, like a lens etc.
- 1708, John Philips, Cyder:
  Thy specular orb / Apply to well-dissected kernels; lo! / In each observe the slender threads / Of first-beginning trees.
(poetic) Offering an expansive view; picturesque.
- 1833, William Wordsworth, Hope Smiled:
  Calm as the Universe, from specular towers / Of heaven contemplated by Spirits pure.
- 1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:
  Look once more, e're we leave this specular mount.