'Periscope' is Greek for 'looking around obstacles' — 'peri-' (around) + 'skopein' (to look).
An apparatus consisting of a tube attached to a set of mirrors or prisms, by which an observer can see things that are otherwise out of direct sight, especially used in submarines.
Coined in the 1850s from Greek 'peri-' (περί, around, about) + 'skopeîn' (σκοπεῖν, to look at, to observe). The prefix 'peri-' derives from PIE *per- (forward, through, around), the same root that gives Latin 'per-' and English 'for-'. The verb 'skopeîn' comes from PIE *speḱ- (to observe, to look), which also produced Latin 'specere' (to look), Sanskrit
The concept of the periscope predates the word by centuries. Johannes Hevelius described a 'polemoscope' (war-viewer) in 1647 for observing over fortification walls. The word 'periscope' was not settled on until the 1850s, and the instrument became famous only when it was adapted for submarine warfare in the early twentieth century. The phrase 'up periscope' entered popular culture
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