An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

Sharpness; acuteness; keenness of perception.

M.E., from M.Fr. acuité, from M.L. acuitatem (nom. acuitas) "sharpness," from L. acus "needle," acuere "to sharpen," from PIE root *ak- "be sharp."

Tiznâ "sharpness," from tiz, "→ sharp," + -nâ, a suffix that transforms adjective into noun (compare with tangnâ, derâznâ, farâxnâ, etc.).

The ability of the → eye to see separately two points close to each other. It is a measure of the → resolving power of the eye's → optical system and depends on the density of cells in the → retina. The maximum acuity of the normal human eye is around 0.5 minutes of arc.

→ acuity; → vision.

For the specific purpose at hand, as opposed to a general solution; also, by extension, improvised or impromptu.

From L. ad "to, with, in," cf. Skt. adhi "near," PIE *ad- "to, near, at."

Pad im, from Mid.Pers. pad "to, at, for, in" (Mod.Pers. bé "to, for, in, on, with, by"); O.Pers. paity "agaist, back, opposite to, toward, face to face, in front of;" Av. paiti "to, toward, in, at;" cf. Skt. práti "toward, against, again, back, in return, opposite;" Pali pati-; Gk. proti, pros "face to face with, toward, in addition to, near;" PIE *proti) + Mid.Pers. im "this;" from Old.Pers./Av. ima "this;" Skt. imá; cf. Lori (Laki) im "this side." The Mid.Pers. im occurs in Mod.Pers. as em- in emruz "today," emšab "tonight," and emsâl "this year."

Addition of adjustments to a theory to save it from being falsified by compensating for anomalies not anticipated by the theory in its unmodified form. Theories that rely on continual, ad hoc adjustments are distrusted.

→ ad hoc; → hypothesis.

A fallacious objection to an argument or factual claim by appealing to a characteristic or belief of the person making the argument or claim, rather than by addressing the substance of the argument or producing evidence against the claim (wiktionary).

Literally "to a man," from → ad- "to," + hominem, accusative of homo "man," → human.

Pad mart, literally "to a man," from pad "to," → ad hoc, + mart, → man.

Prefix meaning "to, toward, addition to, near," from L. ad "to, toward." It is modified to ac- or af- or ag- or al- etc. according to the following consonant.

Cognate with E. at, from O.E. æt "near, by, at"; compare with O.N., Goth. at, O.Fris. et, O.H.G. az, Skt. adhi "near," PIE *ad- "to, near, at".

To make suitable to or fit for a specific use or situation.

From M.Fr. adapter, from L. adaptare "adjust," from ad- "to" + aptare "join," from aptus "fitted."

Niyâvidan from Mid. Pers. niyâw "apt, suitable, appropriate" + -idan verb making suffix.

Capable of adapting or of being adapted.

→ adapt + → -able.

1) The act or process of adapting.
2) The state of being adapted.

→ adapt.

Physiological process whereby the eye adjusts its sensitivity for different levels of illumination.

→ adaptation, → eye.

1) General: One that adapts.
An appliance for connecting objects of different sizes or designs in an apparatus.
2) Astro.: A device that allows an observing instrument (imaging camera, spectrograph) to be mounted on a focus (e.g. Cassegrain) of a telescope.

→ adapt + → -er.

Same as → adaptation.

→ adaptation.

1) Relating to or exhibiting adaptation.
2) Capable of adapting or of being adapted. → adaptive optics; → adaptive optics system; → extreme adaptive optics.

→ adapt; → -ive.

A type of → algorithm that dynamically achieves high → resolution in localized regions of multidimensional → numerical simulations. AMR provides a higher → accuracy solution at lower costs, through an automatically → optimal distribution of → grid points for the computation region. It relies on locally refined mesh or mesh patches to increase the resolution of an underlying coarse mesh only where needed. It can alleviate some of the complexities of the generation of high quality grid and reduce the number of → iterations of "trial-and-error" between the grid generation and solution required for tailoring the grid to the specification of a problem. Thus, it can offer orders of magnitude saving in computational and storage costs over an equivalent uniformly refined mesh. AMR was originally developed for → inviscid, → compressible flow (Berger et al., 1984, Adaptive Mesh Refinement for Hyperbolic Partial Differential Equations. J. Comp. Phy., 53, 484). It has been extended to solve → Navier-Stokes equations, time dependent problems and more. Several AMR techniques have been developed and applied to compressible flow fields to capture characteristics at the strong gradient or discontinuous regions requiring higher space resolution, such as regions involving → shock waves, vortices (→ vortex), and → wakes (see, e.g., Qingluan Xue, "Development of Adaptive Mesh Refinement Scheme and Conjugate Heat Transfer Model for Engine Simulations" (2009), Iowa State Univ., Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Paper 10678).
See also → Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics.

→ adaptive; → mesh; → refinement.

A technique for improving the → image quality of a telescope against → atmospheric turbulence in which image distortions are compensated by high-speed changes in the shape of a small, thin mirror. → wavefront; → wavefront distortion; → wavefront correction; → Strehl ratio; → tip-tilt mirror, → Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor, → active optics.

→ adaptive; → optics.

An → adaptive optics instrument used on the → European Southern Observatory (ESO) 3.6-m telescope at La Silla. It was an upgraded version of COME-ON-PLUS, the → Very Large Telescope (VLT) adaptive optics prototype. It had 52 → actuators and performed corrections of the mirror 200 times per second. The reference → wavefront was sensed in the → visible. The observation was done in the → near-infrared (1-5 μm).

→ adaptive; → optics; → near-infrared; → system.

An → optical system that uses → adaptive optics.

→ adaptive; → optics; → system.

1) To unite or so as to bring about an increase.
2) To increase a number by another number using addition, which leads to a → sum.

M.E. adden, from L. addere "add to, join," from → ad- "to" + -dere combining form meaning "to put, place," from dare "to give, grant," from PIE base *do- "to give" (cf. Av. and O.Pers. dâ- "to give, grant, yield," Av. dadâiti "he gives," Skt. dadâti "he gives," Gk. didomi "I give," L. do "I give").

Bardâyidan, from bar- "on; up; upon; in, into; at; forth," → on-, + O.Pers./Av. dā- "to give, grant, put," dadāiti "he gives;" Mid.Pers./Mod.Pers. dâdan "to give, put" (cf. Skt. dadáti "he gives;" Gk. tithenai "to place, put, set," didomi "I give;" L. dare "to give, offer;" Rus. delat' "to do;" O.H.G. tuon, Ger. tun, O.E. don "to do;" PIE base *dhe- "to put, to do") + -y-, epenthetic vowel, + infinitive suffix -idan.
Afzudan, → increase.

A number or quantity to be added to another. In the expression 5 + 3, both 5 and 3 are addends.

From L. addendus "that which is to be added," → add.

Bardâyé, from present stem bardây-, → add, + noun forming suffix -é.

The operation of combining two or more quantities to obtain a third quantity called their → sum. The result of adding.

Verbal noun of → add.