lasern.1
/ˈleɪsə/ Historical.
A gum resin mentioned by Roman writers; obtained from an umbelliferous plant called lāserpīcium or silphium (σίλϕιον).
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society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > other vegetable materials > plant resin > [noun] > gum (resin) > specific
myrrheOE
balsamc1000
galbanec1000
draganta1300
sandragon1334
gum arabica1350
storaxa1382
galbanum1382
asafœtidaa1398
cinnabara1398
guttaa1398
frankincensea1400
labdanuma1400
opopanaxa1400
gum-arabicc1400
sarcocolc1400
ammoniacc1420
gristle?1537
ladanum1551
dragon's blood1555
benzoin1558
styrax1558
tragacanth1558
gum tragacanth1562
amber1565
anime1577
laser1578
benjamin1580
sarcocolla1584
bdellium1585
sagapenum1597
liquidambar1598
red gum1614
gamboge1615
laudanum1616
gum ammoniac1627
male incense1647
sandarac1655
flesh-glue1659
adragant1696
dammar1698
sagapen1712
gum-dragon1718
courbaril1753
gum-senegal1760
Jew's frankincense1760
guggul1813
angico1821
gum-kino1830
butea gum1832
piney varnish1832
Kuteera gum1838
acaroid1839
bumbo1839
thus1842
gum-juniper1844
piney dammar1846
acacine1855
mochras1856
talha1857
copalm balsam1858
gum benjamin1859
wattle-gum1863
Senegal gum1867
Suakin1874
Barbary gum1875
oliva1882
ledon1885
jatoba1890
mimosa gum1890
xylan1894
gum accroides1909
karaya1916
c1420 Pallad. on Husb. iv. 326 Stampe a quantite of laseris with wyne.]
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball iii. cxii. 303 From out of the rootes and stalkes being scarified and cut floweth a certayne strong liquor,..called Laser.
1591 R. Percyvall Bibliotheca Hispanica Dict. at Benjuy Herbe laser.
1597 W. Langham Garden of Health 411 The hearbe being rubbed, smelleth like vnto Laser.
Compounds
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular tree or plant yielding useful gum or resin > [noun] > laser-tree
laser-tree1626
silphium1753
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §555 A Kind of Spongie Excrescence, which groweth chiefly upon the Roots of the Laser-Tree.
laser-wort n. any plant of the genus Laserpitium, esp. L. latifolium.
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the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Umbelliferae (umbellifers) > [noun] > laserwort plant or root
sermountainc1450
magydare1530
Lombardy lovage1548
bastard lovage1597
laser-wort1597
withy1866
1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. 854 Laserpitium: in English Laserwoort.
1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 1057 Take Castoreum, Lazerwort, Pepper, of each four drams.
1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 316 Laser~wort, Laserpitium.
1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) I. 188 Great laserwort, and Wild Angelica.
1870 Treasury Bot. Laserwort, Laserpitium; also Thapsia Laserpitii.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1902; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
lasern.2
/ˈleɪzə/, U.S. /ˈleɪzər/ 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. Originally 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.
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the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > light > laser > [noun]
laser1960
ruby laser1960
laser gun1961
injection laser1963
phaser1966
dye laser1967
excimer laser1973
laser pen1981
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 32 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 Sci. Surv. 3 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 Electronics Weekly 16 Dec. 6/1 A recent demonstration..showed a toy train in accurate three-dimensional representation, using a hologram illuminated from behind by a gas laser.
1966 Observer 15 May 13 Every bit of a hologram contains information about the whole scene. So you can snip it into pieces, shine a laser at one of the pieces, and you will see the original scene, only somewhat fuzzier.
1969 Sci. Jrnl. Apr. 53/1 Lasers have been operated which produce visible radiation, ultraviolet, infrared and even submillimetre radiation.
1970 Sci. Jrnl. Aug. 17/1 The light from a pulsed laser is split into two beams, one going direct to the metal film and the other going first to the object to be holographed and then to the metal film.
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.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
a.
laser beam n.
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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. 28 Aug. (Colour Suppl.) 17/1 A laser beam, focused through the lens of the eye, can weld a detached retina back into place by creating scar tissue.
laser bomb n.
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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.
laser light n.
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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.
laser reflector n.
ΚΠ
1969 New Scientist 9 Oct. 81/1 The first men on the Moon have..already placed one laser-reflector on the lunar surface.
b.
laser-guided adj.
ΚΠ
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.
laser-ignited adj.
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1971 Sci. Amer. June 29/1 A method for converting the fusion energy from laser-ignited deuterium-tritium pellets into electrical power was evolved..early in 1969.
c.
laser-heat v.
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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.
C2.
laser disc n. 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.
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society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > [noun] > disc
record1878
audio disc1944
CD1979
compact disc (also disk)1979
laser disc1980
CD-ROM1983
CD-i2009
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.
laser-driven adj. powered by a laser beam.
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the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > light > laser > [adjective]
laser-driven1976
1976 Jrnl. Physical Soc. Japan 40 867/2 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.
laser printer n. 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.
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society > communication > printing > printing machine or press > [noun] > computer printer > types of
line-at-a-time printer1955
line printer1955
chain printer1962
laser printer1979
dot matrix1982
thermal printer1982
thimble printer1982
society > computing and information technology > hardware > peripherals > [noun] > printer > laser
laser printer1979
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.
Draft additions 1997
laser gun n. (a) (now rare) = main sense above; (b) originally 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.
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society > leisure > entertainment > toy or plaything > toy weapons > [noun]
poop1489
pellet1553
trunk1553
elder-gun1600
popgun1649
spitter1688
pluff1695
whistling arrowa1718
pea-shooter1782
pea gun1812
detonating ball1814
pea-blower1821
pen-gun1821
pipegun1828
torpedo1831
spring gun1837
putty blower1861
tweaker1862
pluffera1866
bean-shooter1890
putty shooter1896
water pistol1897
stink bomb1915
cap-pistol1920
cap-gun1931
laser gun1961
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > light > laser > [noun]
laser1960
ruby laser1960
laser gun1961
injection laser1963
phaser1966
dye laser1967
excimer laser1973
laser pen1981
society > communication > reading > reader > [noun] > reading machine > which uses a laser
laser gun1961
society > communication > record > recording or reproducing sound or visual material > sound recording and reproduction > sound recording or reproducing equipment > [noun] > laser gun
laser gun1961
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > small-arm > [noun] > other small arms
long gun1530
currier1558
crabut1626
long arm1675
bullet-guna1701
hand cannon1752
wall-gun1812
walking-stick gun1823
shoulder gun1824
safety gun1825
gas gun1856
self-cocker1857
bolt action1871
snap action gun1875
saddle gun1886
multibarrel1899
dane gun1900
clip-loader1901
pump-action1923
sleeve gun1944
laser gun1961
phaser1966
magnum1970
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.
Draft additions June 2003
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.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > light > laser > [noun]
laser1960
ruby laser1960
laser gun1961
injection laser1963
phaser1966
dye laser1967
excimer laser1973
laser pen1981
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′.
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.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1976; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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