Other forms: retinas
The retina is the layer at the back of the eye that senses light. A detached retina, the retina scanned, damage to the retina.
It is the only part of the nervous system that can be seen from outside the body, which is why an eye examination reveals diabetes and high blood pressure. A detached one is a medical emergency, and the warning sign is a shower of floaters or a curtain across the vision.
1nounretinaThe layer at the back of the eye that senses light.
“Looking directly at the sun can burn your retina and damage your sight.”
retina is a body part.
Medieval Latin retina is short for tunica retina, the net-like coat, from rete, a net.
Medieval Latin
rētīna — retina
Middle English
rethina
English, today
retina
Built from
From Middle English rethina, borrowing from Medieval Latin rētīna (“retina”), ellipsis of tunica rētīna (“net-like tunic”), used to describe the blood vessel system at the back of the eye. The phrase is attested in the 12th century in Guillelmus the abbot and Gerard of Cremona—the latter may have created this phrase as a translation for طَبَقَة شَبَكِيَّة "net-like layer", which translates ἀμφιβληστροειδής χῐτών (“retina”), which is attested in the ancient medical writer Galen.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA