stigma-

1. Pertaining to a lens or lens system which is free of visual disturbance, or is able to form clear images.
2. A reference to a compound lens in which the separate components compensate for the visual defects caused by any unequal curving of one or more of the refractive surfaces of the eyes; usually, the cornea.

Relating to a defect in the eye, or in a lens caused by a deviation from spherical curvature, which prevents light rays from meeting at a common focus and so results in distorted images.

An astigmatic condition is a disorder of vision; usually, due to misshapen corneas in the eyes such that light does not focus correctly on the retinas and so a person can only see blurred images.

1. A defect in a lens of an eye that prevents light rays from meeting at a single point, thus producing an imperfect image.
2. A common form of visual impairment in which part of an image is blurred, due to an irregularity in the curvature of the front surface of the eye, the cornea.

The curve of the cornea is shaped more like an American football or a rugby ball rather than normally as a spherical basketball.

Light rays entering the eye are not uniformly focused on the retina; resulting in blurred vision at all distances and only part of what a person is looking at is in clear focus at any one time.

3. Etymology: coined in form of astigmatic in 1849 by English scientist William Whewell (1794-1866), from Greek a-, "without" + stigmatos, stigma, "a mark, a spot, a puncture".

1. A visual disturbance caused by an error in the refraction of light within the eye.
2. A defect in an optical system in which light rays from one point fails to converge in a single focal point.

A specific, peculiar phenomena or symptoms of uncontrolled excitement or neurosis: The hysterical stigmas involve peculiar phenomena or symptoms of anesthesia, hyperesthesia, reversal of the visual color field, amblyopia of sudden onset with normal pupillary responses, and impairment of the senses of hearing, of taste, and of muscular senses.

A physical condition that is caused by a defective curvature or a refractive surface of the lens of an eye: A linticular astigmatism is an abnormal situation in which a refraction or a change in direction of a ray of light in the eye is not sharply focused on the retina, but it is spread over a more or less diffuse or scattered area.

Marks, or blemishes, that are made on the surface of the body: The professional stigmata are results of a person's occupation and they include callosities (areas of the skin that are thick or hard from continual pressure or friction), scars, bursae (fluid-filled sacs located between movable parts of the body; especially, at the joints), tattoo marks, deformities of the nails and teeth, and color changes of the skin and hair.

1. The shame or disgrace attached to something regarded as socially unacceptable: When a person receives welfare, sometimes it is attached with a social stigma as being not good enough to be associated with by other people.
2. A mark of disgrace or infamy; a stain or reproach; such as, on one's reputation: Harry's character carried the stigma of having been an alcoholic even after he quit drinking and never touched it again.
3. In medicine, a mark on the skin indicating a medical condition; for example, a mark or characteristic indicative of a history of a disease or abnormality: June had stigmas or lesions on her arms showing that she had had severe illnesses when she was a child.
4. In psychology, a mark, or spot, on the skin that bleeds as a symptom of hysteria: In the book that Rebecca was reading, the sister of the main character had a stigma on her right hand that would open with blood gushing out when she was in a delirium.
5. In zoology, a colored mark or spot found on some protozoans and invertebrates: In Jane’s biology class she learned that butterflies, and other lepidopterans, had something like a speck which resembled an eye and was called a stigma.
6. Etymology: a mark burned into the skin of a slave; a brand that identifies ownership. It was also used to identify a criminal.

The Greek element stigma denoted a "mark made on the skin with a sharp implement"; hence, a "tattoo" or a "scar".

By the time the term stigma arrived in English, via Latin, it had acquired the connotation of a "brand of shame"; and it was also used specifically to indicate the specific injuries made on Christ's hands and feet by the nails of the cross.

© ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.

1. A reference to the marks on the hands and feet resembling the wounds from Jesus Christ's crucifixion: The stigmata are the bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain corresponding in the location of the wounds that Jesus suffered which have been known to occur during conditions of religious ecstasy or hysteria.
2. In medicine, a mark or a characteristic indication of a former disease or abnormality.
3. Historically, marks that were burned into the skins of criminals or slaves: In the past, stigmata were brands to indicate who owned the enslaved people or to identify those who were convicted of illegal actions.

A reference to something that is socially unacceptable or repulsive: In times past, stigmatic women were those who never married; in fact, older unmarried women were referred to as "old maids" which was an insulting term.

Pertaining to something that reveals infamy or unacceptable behavior and scorn: When the politician who had a PhD was accused of not providing proper identification of the resources in his thesis, the public stigmatical results totally ruined his career.

1. The state of a refracting or reflecting system in which light rays from a single point are accurately focused at another point.
2. Normal eyesight.

A person whose body is marked by religious marks resembling the wounds of the crucified Christ.

The process or act of characterizing someone as being disgraceful or ignominious.