camera lucida

[loo-si-duh]

noun

an optical instrument, often attached to the eyepiece of a microscope, by which the image of an external object is projected on a sheet of paper or the like for tracing.

Origin of camera lucida

1660–70; < New Latin: bright chamber; see camera¹, lucid

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for camera lucida

Historical Examples of camera lucida

Now remove the cap of the eye-piece, and fix the camera-lucida in its stead.
Every Boy's Book: A Complete Encyclopdia of Sports and Amusements
Various
Then came illustrations, which at first were camera-lucida drawings in pencil smoothed out with pen and ink.
The Appendages, Anatomy, and Relationships of Trilobites
Percy Edward Raymond

British Dictionary definitions for camera lucida

camera lucida

noun

an instrument attached to a microscope, etc to enable an observer to view simultaneously the image and a drawing surface to facilitate the sketching of the image

Word Origin for camera lucida

New Latin: light chamber

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012