"instrument for viewing the interior of the eye," especially the retina, 1857 in English; coined 1852 by German physician and physicist Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz; see ophthalmo- + -scope.
Entries linking to ophthalmoscope
ophthalmo-
before vowels ophthalm-, word-forming element meaning "eye," mostly in plural, "the eyes," from Greek ophthalmos "eye," originally "the seeing," a word of uncertain origin. Perhaps from ōps "eye" (from PIE root *okw- "to see") + a form related to thalamos "inner room, chamber" (see thalamus), giving the whole a sense of "eye and eye socket," but Beekes rejects all this and finds it to be probably Pre-Greek.
-scope
word-forming element indicating "an instrument for seeing," from Late Latin -scopium, from Greek -skopion, from skopein "to look at, examine" (from PIE root *spek- "to observe").