English Online Dictionary. What means focus? What does focus mean?
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin focus (“hearth, fireplace”); see there for more. Doublet of fuel.
Kepler introduced the term into mathematics and the sciences in describing elliptical orbits of planets (quote from Nicholas Mee) : "One of the interesting properties of an ellipse is that if there were a light bulb at one focus, then all the light that it emits would reflect off the ellipse and converge at the other focus. This is why Kepler originally used the name focus for these points."
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈfəʊ.kəs/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈfoʊ.kəs/
- Hyphenation: fo‧cus
- Rhymes: -əʊkəs
Noun
focus (countable and uncountable, plural foci or focuses or focusses)
- (countable, optics) A point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge.
- Synonym: focal point
- (countable, geometry) A point of a conic at which rays reflected from a curve or surface converge.
- (uncountable, photography, cinematography) The fact of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.
- (uncountable, photography, cinematography) The quality of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.
- (uncountable) Concentration of attention.
- (countable) Something to which activity, attention or interest is primarily directed.
- Synonym: focal point
- (countable, seismology) The exact point of where an earthquake occurs, in three dimensions (underneath the epicentre).
- (graphical user interface) The status of being the currently active element in a user interface, often indicated by a visual highlight.
- (linguistics) The most important word or phrase in a sentence or passage, or the one that imparts information.
- An object used in casting a magic spell.
Derived terms
Translations
Verb
focus (third-person singular simple present focuses or focusses, present participle focusing or focussing, simple past and past participle focused or focussed)
- (transitive) To cause (rays of light, etc) to converge at a single point.
- (transitive, optics) To adjust (a lens, an optical instrument) in order to position an image with respect to the focal plane.
- (intransitive, optics, of a lens, optical instrument, etc.) To adjust itself or be adjusted such that light from a scene converges appropriately to create a clear image.
- (transitive) To direct attention, effort, or energy to a particular audience or task.
- (intransitive) To concentrate one’s attention.
- (intransitive, followed by on or upon) To concentrate one's attention on something; to have as one's central point of interest, concern, etc.
- (computing, graphical user interface, transitive) To transfer the input focus to (a visual element), so that it receives subsequent input.
- (accounting, formerly) To aggregate figures of accounts.
Usage notes
The spellings with -ss- are more common in Commonwealth English than in American English, but in both varieties they are less common than the spellings focuses, focusing, focused.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
References
Anagrams
- Fusco
Catalan
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin focus. Compare the inherited doublet foc.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈfɔ.kus]
- Hyphenation: fo‧cus
Noun
focus m (invariable)
- focus
Dutch
Etymology
Borrowed from New Latin focus. The figurative sense probably derives from English focus.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈfoː.kʏs/
- Hyphenation: fo‧cus
Noun
focus m (plural focussen)
- (optics, physics) focus
- Synonym: brandpunt
- (figurative) focus, centre
- (linguistics) focus
Derived terms
- focaal
- focusafstand
- focussen
Related terms
- foyer
Descendants
- Afrikaans: fokus
References
Italian
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin focus, whence also Italian fuoco (an inherited doublet).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈfɔ.kus/
- Rhymes: -ɔkus
- Hyphenation: fò‧cus
Noun
focus m (invariable)
- focus (all senses)
Anagrams
- Fusco
Latin
Etymology
- The origin is uncertain. Usually connected with Old Armenian բոց (bocʻ).
- Some connect this along with faciēs, facētus, fax to Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”). In that case, cognate at the root level with Sanskrit भाति (bhā́ti), Ancient Greek φαίνω (phaínō, “to shine”), etc.
- Matasović, and Hamp before him, opt to derive this from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn”); Matasović believes that the -c- would have spread from the nominative of a root noun *dʰṓgʷʰ-s (> *dʰṓkʷʰ-s).
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ˈfo.kus/, [ˈfɔkʊs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈfo.kus/, [ˈfɔːkus]
Noun
focus m (genitive focī); second declension
- fireplace, hearth
- firepan, coal pan, brazier
- (figuratively) house, family
- (Late Latin) fire
Declension
Second-declension noun, with locative.
Locative used in the sense "by the hearth".
Synonyms
- (fire): ignis
Derived terms
Related terms
- focillare
- foculare
Descendants
- Balkan Romance:
- Aromanian: foc, focu
- Istro-Romanian: foc
- Megleno-Romanian: foc
- Romanian: foc
- Dalmatian:
- fuc
- Italo-Romance:
- Corsican: focu
- Italian: fuoco
- Neapolitan: fuoco
- Sicilian: focu
- Insular Romance:
- Sardinian: fogu, focu
- North Italian:
- Gallo-Italic:
- Emilian: fûg
- Ligurian: fêugo
- Lombard: fœg, fœi, fœv
- Piedmontese: feu, feug
- Romagnol: fug, fóg (Faenza, Imola)
- Friulian: fûc
- Istriot: fògo
- Ladin: fech, fesc
- Romansch: fieu, fiug
- Venetan: fogo
- → Byzantine Greek: φουγκού (phounkoú)
- → Turkish: fufu
- → Greek: φουφού (foufoú)
- → Turkish: fufu
- → Byzantine Greek: φουγκού (phounkoú)
- Gallo-Italic:
- Gallo-Romance:
- Catalan: foc
- Franco-Provençal: fuè
- Old French: fu
- Middle French: feu
- French: feu
- Walloon: feu
- Middle French: feu
- Old Occitan: foc, fuec, fuoc
- Occitan: fuòc, fòc, fuec, hoec (Gascony), huec (Gascony)
- Ibero-Romance:
- Aragonese: fuego
- Asturian: fueu, fuegu, ḥuego
- Extremaduran: hueu
- Mirandese: fuogo
- Old Galician-Portuguese: fogo
- Fala: fogu
- Galician: fogo
- Portuguese: fogo (see there for further descendants)
- Old Spanish: fuego
- Ladino: fuego
- Spanish: fuego
Borrowings:
- → Catalan: focus
- → Dutch: focus
- → English: focus
- → Esperanto: fokuso
- → Finnish: fokus
- → French: focus
- → Galician: foco
- → German: Fokus
- → Italian: focus
- → Portuguese: foco
- → Russian: фо́кус (fókus)
- → Spanish: foco
- → Swedish: fokus
References
Further reading
- “focus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “focus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- focus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- focus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
- “focus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “focus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
- De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 228-9
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from French focus or German Fokus.
Noun
focus n (plural focusuri)
- focus