▪ I. laser1 Hist.
(ˈleɪsə(r))
Also 6 lasser, 7 lazer.
[a. L. lāser.]
A gum-resin mentioned by Roman writers; obtained from an umbelliferous plant called lāserpīcium or silphium (σίλϕιον).
| [c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iv. 326 Stampe a quantite of laseris with wyne.] 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. cxii. 303 From out of the rootes and stalkes being scarified and cut floweth a certayne strong liquor,..called Laser. 1579 Langham Gard. Health (1633) 411 The hearbe being rubbed, smelleth like vnto Laser. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Benjuy, herbe laser. |
b. Comb.:
† laser-tree, the tree yielding laser;
laser-wort, any plant of the genus
Laserpitium,
esp. L. latifolium.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §555 A Kind of Spongie Excrescence, which groweth chiefly upon the Roots of the *Laser-Tree. |
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. cccxci. (1633) 1007 Laserpitium called in English *Laserwort. 1658 J. R. tr. Mouffet's Theat. Insects 1057 Take Castoreum, Lazerwort, Pepper, of each four drams. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 316 Laser⁓wort, Laserpitium. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 188 Great laserwort, and Wild Angelica. 1870 Treas. Bot., Laserwort, Laserpitium; also Thapsia Laserpitii. |
▪ II. laser2 (
ˈleɪzə(r))
[f. the initial letters of ‘light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation’, after the earlier maser.] 1. Any device that is capable of emitting a very intense, narrow, parallel beam of highly monochromatic and coherent light (or other electromagnetic radiation), either continuously or in pulses, and operates by using light to stimulate the emission of more light of the same wavelength and phase by atoms or molecules that have been excited by some means.
Orig. treated as the name of a particular kind of maser (
optical maser) emitting visible light,
laser is now the general term for all devices of this kind, whatever the wavelength of the emitted radiation.
| 1960 N.Y. Times 8 July 7/6 The Hughes device is an optical maser, or ‘laser’, (the ‘l’ standing for ‘light’). 1960 Aviation Week 18 July 97/2 The optical Maser is also referred to by the term Laser. 1960 Daily Tel. 29 Dec. 9/4 The laser, a device for amplifying light which could conceivably be developed to produce a searchlight beam that would reach the moon, is still a paper project as far as British scientists are concerned. 1961 Jrnl. Appl. Physics XXXII. 178 [Paper received 13 June 1960.] The Fabry-Perot interferometer has been suggested for use as a high⁓mode LASER (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) resonator. 1961 Observer 19 Feb. 5/2 The new ‘laser’, as it is called, uses a mixture of helium and neon gas to produce a continuous beam of infra-red radiation... Previous devices have produced only brief pulses of light. 1962 Science Survey III. 27 The principle of the maser has been extended also to solid materials and, in addition, it has been found possible to make a light maser (or ‘laser’) that produces, not microwaves, but visible light. 1963 Electronics Weekly 2 Jan. 1/4 The new high-power laser uses a six-inch by half-inch ruby. 1963 Monsanto Mag. Mar. 9/2 Early lasers absorbed energy from a strong burst of ordinary white light, organized it, then expelled a powerful beam of a different kind of light. 1963 Daily Tel. 24 Oct. 19/4 Already in metal working the term ‘Gillette power’ is used as a measure of the laser's metal-vaporising capabilities. It represents the number of stacked razor blades through which a beam can bore its way. 1964, 1966 [see hologram]. 1969 Sci. Jrnl. Apr. 53/1 Lasers have been operated which produce visible radiation, ultraviolet, infrared and even submillimetre radiation. 1970 [see holograph v.]. 1971 Sci. Amer. June 21/3 A laser is a device for generating or amplifying a beam of light whose waves are both monochromatic (all the same wavelength) and coherent (all in step). The light beam emitted by a laser can be made almost perfectly parallel, its divergence angle being theoretically limited only by diffraction effects. 1972 McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 266/2 The first purely chemical lasers requiring no external source of energy to initiate or sustain laser excitation have been operated successfully. |
2. attrib. and
Comb., as
laser beam,
laser bomb,
laser light,
laser reflector;
laser-guided,
laser-ignited ppl. adjs.;
laser-heat vb.;
laser disc, a disc on which signals or data are recorded to be reproduced by directing a laser beam on to its surface and detecting the light reflected or transmitted by it;
laser-driven ppl. a., powered by a laser beam;
laser printer, a non-impact printer in which a laser is used to form a pattern of dots on a photosensitive drum corresponding to the pattern of print required on a page.
| 1963 Monsanto Mag. Mar. 10/3 A *laser beam can generate intense heat—10,000°F. or higher—in a small area. 1970 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 28 Aug. 17/1 A laser beam, focused through the lens of the eye, can weld a detached retina back into place by creating scar tissue. |
| 1970 Daily Tel. 31 Jan. 4/2 Scientists..maintain that the *laser bomb..is a theoretical possibility. 1972 Guardian 29 June 4/3 The drawback to the laser bomb is that the plane producing the beam must keep it on target until the bomb's impact. |
| [1978 Electronics & Communications in Japan LXI. 97/1 The signal is read from the laser video disc by detecting either the transmitted or reflected light when a laser beam is incident at the recorded signal track.] 1980 C. S. French Computer Sci. vii. 32 *Laser disc units. Development is going ahead on disc units which use optical methods requiring lasers. 1982 World Bk. Sci. Ann. 1983 131 Today's videodiscs differ radically..from one another. The most sophisticated is the optical disc, or laser disc. 1985 Sunday Times 20 Jan. 72/7 Laser disc technology is about to make the filing cabinet obsolete. |
| 1976 Jrnl. Physical Soc. Japan XL. 867/2 In order to pull out thermonuclear fusion energy from a *laser-driven pellet, the implosion must take place in a stable manner. 1984 Progress Optics XXI. 355 (heading) Fluctuations, instabilities and chaos in the laser-driven nonlinear ring cavity. |
| 1967 New Scientist 11 May 326/2 With the *laser-guided bomb, the large bombers might be able to drop their loads over the target area from high altitudes with greater assurance of putting them on target. 1972 Science 9 June 1108/3 The laser-guided bombs now being used are mostly in the 2000 to 3000-pound range. |
| 1971 Sci. Amer. June 27/1 The second question—regarding the feasibility of *laser-heating a small dense plasma to thermonuclear conditions without the necessity of a confining magnetic field—is receiving increased attention. Ibid. 29/1 A method for converting the fusion energy from laser-ignited deuterium-tritium pellets into electrical power was evolved..early in 1969. |
| 1966 Listener 28 July 129/3 The editor..will brandish a *laser-light pen to indicate alterations which a computer will make. 1971 B. de Ferranti Living with Computer ix. 83 In laser light the waves are all in the same plane and in phase. |
| 1979 Product Engin. May 16 (heading) *Laser printer is crucial to office machine that does just about everything. 1985 Personal Computer World Feb. 13/3 (Advt.), Laser Jet is a quiet, eight page-per-minute tabletop laser printer. |
| 1969 New Scientist 9 Oct. 81/1 The first men on the Moon have..already placed one *laser-reflector on the lunar surface. |
Add:
[2.] laser gun, (
a) (now
rare)
= sense 1 above; (
b)
orig. Science Fiction, a weapon incorporating a laser; a toy intended to resemble this; (
c) any of various devices which use a laser to read or record information.
| 1961 Business Week 30 Dec. 46/2 (heading) *Laser gun shoots light rays. 1972 New Republic 8 Apr. 10/1 Several times a day, scientists pull the trigger of a gigantic 60,000-watt ‘gas dynamic’ laser gun, sending up puffs of light grey smoke followed by a muffled two-second roar. Two miles away, a wooden target bursts into flames. 1981 Encycl. Sci. Suppl. 1982 (Grolier) 349/1 The laser gun moves slowly across the surface, leaving a special track. 1990 A. Lurie Don't tell Grown-Ups ii. 25 Jack doesn't zap the giant with a laser gun, because in real life when you meet a bully or an armed mugger or a boss who wants to push you around you probably won't have a laser gun. 1992 Times Educ. Suppl. 31 Jan. 47/6 Once the barcode is printed it needs to be read or scanned. Again a range of readers/scanners, such as hand-held wands, laser guns and touch scanners, are described. |
▸
laser pen n. (a) a small, slender hand-held device emitting a laser beam, used for scanning bar-codes;
(b) a hand-held device emitting a narrow beam of coloured light, typically used by speakers to project a visual pointer on to a screen.
| 1981 Industry Week 26 Jan. 101 The computer system, now being used to track 200,000 pending patent applications, uses bar-code labeling of files and a *laser pen scanner to provide input. 1992 AVC Presentation for Visual Communication (Nexis) Feb. 20 Weighing under three ounces with batteries and disguised as a pen, the Laser Pen will operate up to seven hours at distances up to 65{p}. 1997 Daily Tel. (Electronic ed.) 10 Nov. Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, is to be urged to crack down on laser pens after three police officers suffered eye injuries during a siege. The officers complained of burning eyes and headaches after a pen was aimed at them. 2002 Record (Bergen County, New Jersey) (Nexis) 13 Feb. i1 Most other libraries use a laser pen to scan a bar code when someone wants to check out a book, and the computer keeps track of when it's due back. |
▪ III. laser var. lazar;
obs. form of
leisure n.