collimate

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 11, 2014 is: collimate • \KAH-luh-mayt\  • verb : to make (something, such as light rays) parallel Examples: "Amazingly, some astrophysical jets-streams of charged particles collimated and accelerated over astronomical distances-also exhibit a helical structure." - From an article by Mario Livio on The Huffington Post, November 20, 2013 "The higher cost and fixed eyepieces of the … binoculars are distinct disadvantages, but setup time is reduced-there's no need to collimate optics or align tube assemblies." - From a product review by Phil Harrington in Astronomy, February 2004 Did you know? One might expect a science-y word like "collimate" to have a straightforward etymology, but that's not the case. "Collimate" comes from Latin "collimare," a misreading of the Latin word "collineare," meaning "to direct in a straight line." The erroneous "collimare" appeared in some editions of the works of ancient Roman statesman Cicero and scholar Aulus Gellius. The error was propagated by later writers-most notably by astronomers, such as Johannes Kepler, who wrote in Latin. And so it was the spelling "collimate," rather than "collineate," that passed into English in the 19th century. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.