Optician
Does "optician" in this context mean "someone who sells eyeglasses" or someone who sells spy-glass and binoculars"?
Text:
The boy associates the Sandman with Coppelius the lawyer, who visits his father at night, and he fantasises that this man is trying to steal his eyes. As an adult student, Nathaniel is revisited by these nightmares on meeting the optician Coppola, from whom he buys a pocket spy-glass that he uses to spy on Professor Spalanzani in the house opposite, falling in love with his ‘daughter’ Olympia, who is actually a clockwork doll (a part of Hoffman’s tale of The Sandman)
Top answer
Walsh makes reference to an unknown translation of a libretto written in French around 1880, based on a story written in German in the early nineteeenth century. The English word "optician" today means someone who makes eyeglasses. The definition "someone who makes or sells optical instruments of all kinds" the OED calls "historical".
- Walsh makes reference to an unknown translation of a libretto written in French around 1880, based on a story written in German in the early nineteeenth century.
- The English word "optician" today means someone who makes eyeglasses.
- The definition "someone who makes or sells optical instruments of all kinds" the OED calls "historical".
- Walsh has passed on to us the outmoded word from her readings.
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Walsh makes reference to an unknown translation of a libretto written in French around 1880, based on a story written in German in the early nineteeenth century. The English word "optician" today means someone who makes eyeglasses. The definition "someone who makes or sells optical instruments of all kinds" the OED calls "historical". Walsh has passed on to us the outmoded word from her
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