Fwd: "nyctograph, n." - Word of the Day from the OED

[Dave Monroe]

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Subject: "nyctograph, n." - Word of the Day from the OED
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Your word for today is: nyctograph, n.

nyctograph, n.
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈnɪktə(ʊ)grɑːf/, /ˈnɪktə(ʊ)graf/,  U.S.
/ˈnɪktoʊˌgræf/, /ˈnɪkdoʊˌgræf/
Etymology: <  nycto- comb. form + -graph comb. form. Compare French
nyctographe machine enabling the blind to write or the sighted to
write in the dark (1818–19 or earlier), and Hellenistic Greek
νυκτογραϕία writing by night. Compare also earlier noctograph n.
  A device invented by Charles Dodgson (‘Lewis Carroll’) with which a
person can record ideas (esp. those remaining after sleep) at night in
bed without fully waking up.
1891  ‘L. Carroll’ Diary 24 Oct. (1953) II. xiv. 486 Today [sc. 24
Sept.] I conceived the idea of having a series of squares, cut out in
card, and devising an alphabet, of which each letter could be made of
lines along the edges of the squares, and dots at the corners.‥ I
shall call it ‘The Typhlograph’. (24/10/91. Instead of ‘typhlograph’ I
have adopted ‘Nyctograph’ at the suggestion of Warner).
1898  S. D. Collingwood Life & Lett. L. Carroll vii. 295 In 1891 he
conceived the device‥and he named it the ‘Typhlograph’, but, at the
suggestion of one of his brother-students, this was subsequently
changed into ‘Nyctograph’.
1930  W. de la Mare Eighteen-eighties 236 He invented‥poetical
acrostics and the nyctograph.
1959  R. Thomson Psychol. Thinking x. 198 Lewis Carroll derived so
much from this source [sc. hypnagogic imagery] that he invented a
peculiar instrument, the ‘nyctograph’, to enable him to jot down ideas
without fully waking up.
1991 New Scientist 2 Mar. 60/1 Lewis Carroll went as far as designing
a device he called a ‘nyctograph’ specifically for the purpose of
writing down ideas which came to him in bed so he wouldn't have to get
out in the cold.

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