"far-sightedness brought on by age," 1791, medical Latin, from Greek presbys "old man," also "elderly, aged" (see presby-) + -opia, from ōps "eye" (from PIE root *okw- "to see"). Related: Presbyopic.
Entries linking to presbyopia
presby-
word-forming element meaning "old," from Greek presby-, combining form of presbys "elderly, aged," as a noun, "elder, old man," which is of uncertain and much debated origin and phonetic development (some Doric forms have -g- in place of -b-). The first element is likely *pres- "before, in front" (from PIE root *per- (1) "forward," hence "in front of, before, first"). Perhaps the whole originally meant "one who leads the cattle," from the root of bous "cow." Watkins, however, has it from PIE *pres-gwu- "going before," with second element from root *gw-u- "going," a suffixed form of root *gwa- "to come."
*okw-
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to see."
It forms all or part of: amblyopia; antique; antler; atrocity; autopsy; binocle; binocular; biopsy; catoptric; Cyclops; daisy; enoptomancy; eye; eyelet; ferocity; hyperopia; inoculate; inveigle; monocle; monocular; myopia; necropsy; ocular; oculist; oculus; oeillade; ogle; ophthalmo-; optic; optician; optics; optometry; panoptic; panopticon; Peloponnesus; pinochle; presbyopia; prosopopeia; stereoptican; synopsis; triceratops; ullage; wall-eyed; window.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit akshi "the eye; the number two," Greek osse "(two) eyes," opsis "a sight;" Old Church Slavonic oko, Lithuanian akis, Latin oculus, Greek okkos, Tocharian ak, ek, Armenian akn "eye."