this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2026
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Linguistics Humor

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[–] Skua@kbin.earth 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think what has happened here is that OOP has tripped up on what "vision" meant

We seem to have gotten "scope" from Ancient Greek twice. One is σκοπέω (skopéō), which is a verb for "look at" or "examine", and the other is σκοπός (skopós), a noun for "watcher". So I can see how they'd get scope (verb) = vision and scope (noun) = visor

Unfortunately the Latin word that we get vision from means "eyesight", which neither sense of scope works for. I think the appropriate old Greek word is ὅρᾱσῐς (hórāsĭs), so maybe remotorasis would be a better guess for "television" on this post

(disclaimer, I'm not a linguist and also don't really know anything about Latin or Ancient Greek, I might be wrong)

[–] IndigoGollum@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It could also be that they chose "remotoscope" over "remotorasis" intentionally because the former is such a fun word.

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 1 points 2 weeks ago

It's definitely the more fun option

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

"scope" also fits in with how we already use that word, e.g. microscope/telescope/periscope.
I'd wager most (non-indian, because i'd assume they don't use the latin/greek parts of english as much) english speakers could figure out what "remotoscope" means even completely devoid of context.