amblyopia

[Laurence Horn]

Synchronistically enough, just after our intense but inconclusive
debate on "nipplyopia", I was paging through yesterday's New York
Times Science section when I came upon an article on the affliction
of "lazy eye", or--we're told--"amblyopia".  I thought the idea might
be that the eye just kinda ambles around aimlessly, but I see on
closer examination (with my good eye) that the first root is Gk.
amblos 'dim'.  It's been around since 1706 and there are 25,000 hits
on google, but I'd never heard of it (or, for that matter, of the
rather less well-attested "nipplyopia") before yesterday.  Go know.

larry