retina
(ˈrɛtɪnə)
Also 5–6 reth-.
[ad. med.L. retina (?f. L. rēte net). So It., Sp., and Pg. retina, F. rétine (1314).]
The innermost layer or coating at the back of the eyeball (esp. of vertebrates), which is sensitive to light and in which the optic nerve terminates.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 241 Of þe substaunce of dura matris is engendrid rethina, þat is þe þinne skyn þat goiþ without þe iȝe, þat is clepid þe vilm of þe iȝe. 1525 tr. Jerome of Brunswick's Surg. B j b/2 The thyrde [coat] groweth of the senowe optico; the inner parte therof is named retina. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. E iij b, Of the inwarde party is called rethina and of the outwarde parte on the humour Crystallyn it hyght Aranea. 1619 Purchas Microcosmus viii. 89, I omit the Tunicle,..the Retina, and the rest. 1667 Phil. Trans. II. 536 The Retina was also streaked with very apparent sanguineous Vessels. 1748 Hartley Observ. Man i. iii. §4. 379 The Pictures made by Objects upon the Retina. 1777 Priestley Matt. & Spir. (1782) I. x. 129 The brain is of the very same substance with the retina, and optic nerves. 1811 Wood Optics vi. 139 The images cannot, in both cases, fall upon corresponding points of the retinas. 1851 Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. xii. 90, I found that the objects before me made duplicate impressions upon my diseased retina. 1897 Nature 1 Feb. 296/1 Kühne's observations were made on the retinæ of frogs and rabbits. |
| fig. 1759 Sterne Tr. Shandy ii. v, This identical bowling-green..became curiously painted..upon the retina of my uncle Toby's fancy. 1807 Med. Jrnl. XVII. 45 The more just refraction of the rays shall paint the picture in its true colours on the retina of his mind. 1854 Brewster More Worlds i. 8 The image of the future is the last picture which is effaced from the retina of the mind. |