Cataract
Who said that? Come closer!
cataract
CAT-uh-rakt
noun
A medical condition in which the lens of the eye becomes progressively opaque
Anyone unfortunate enough to know what I look like will know that I wear quite thick glasses. Anyone who doesn’t know what I look like is invited to imagine a slightly chunkier Hemsworth brother (it doesn’t matter which - they’re all good) and you won’t be far wrong. I wear the thick glasses because I was born with cataracts, which were removed when I was four, and the lenses in my eyes were replaced with plastic ones. If I take my glasses off and the lighting is right, these prosthetic lenses will reflect light back out of my eyes, which my dad always affectionately said made it look like I had diamonds in my eyes.
Anyway, the word ‘cataract’ comes from the Latin word cataracta, which means ‘portcullis’, likely because cataracts block light from properly entering the eyes in a similar way to a portcullis blocking entry to ne’er-do-wells.
‘Cataract’ also has a less common meaning - a waterfall, usually in a river. Both senses of the word are ultimately from the Greek word katarassein, meaning ‘rushing down’.