perspicil

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, G. & C. Merriam, 1913