"instrument for viewing the interior of the eye," especially the retina, 1857 in English; coined 1852 by German physician and physicist Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz; see ophthalmo- + -scope.
surname and masc. proper name, in some cases representing Maurice (common form Morice), or a nickname, Moorish, for one who is swarthy. As a style of furniture, wallpaper, etc., by 1874, in reference to poet and craftsman William Morris (1834-1896).
1867, in music, "a harmonic, an upper partial tone," from over- + tone (n.); a loan-translation of German Oberton, which was first used by German physicist Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (1821-1894) as a contraction of Overpartialton "upper partial tone." Figurative sense of "subtle implication" is from 1890, in William James.
1927, in reference to a personality test in which the subject is shown a series of standard ink blots and describes what they suggest or resemble; named for its developer, Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach (1885-1922). The name of the town on the Swiss side of Lake Constance is from an early form of German Röhr "reeds" + Schachen "lakeside."
