Today I found myself saying “through the retrospectoscope” to a non-medical person. The retrospectoscope is a poke at the tendency of doctors to rely on medical devices (ultrasounds, Cat scans, etc) to make diagnoses while jabbing at someone with 20/20 hindsight. We could just say, “in hindsight” like the rest of the population, so when I used it, I started to explain myself, but the person I was speaking to (a businesswoman) understood perfectly what I meant.
I’d like to know when the word retrospectoscope was first used and if it has passed into the understanding if not usage of non-medical people today. It’s not on Etymology Online, but is in the Urban Dictionary, and I’ve seen it in the New York Times, and it’s in Sheehy’s Hillary’s Choice:
Looking back through the retrospectoscope from 1999 to 1992, Davis sees a tragic pattern: “One can speculate that the whole chain of events that led to the Whitewater investigation, then led to Ken Starr, which then led to the investigation of Monica and finally to impeachment can be traced back to the first Jeff Gerth New York Times….
Answer
The earliest example I found is from 1940:
Instead of being listed as histories, prophecies and wills of the class, were on the program as “retrospectroscope,” “futurama-scope” and “etho-cosmascope.”
The Emporia Gazette from Emporia, Kansas: January 26, 1940 (newspapers.com subscribers only)
Given how early this is compared to the other examples, in addition to the fact that it has a slightly different meaning than the sense you mention in the question, I’m not sure it’s related to the term used in the medical field or not.
The next most recent examples I found were from 1954:
As Dr. Merrill Sosman of Boston has often pointed out the “retrospectoscope” is a wonderful diagnostic aid.
The association of gallstones and heart disease
Adm. Lewis L. Strauss, chairman of the atomic energy commission used his “retrospectoscope” the other day to recall an experience with the late Sen. Smith W. (Wild man) Brookhart of Iowa.
Corpus Christi Times: May 5, 1954; The Independent Record from Helena, Montana: May 9, 1954 (newspapers.com subscribers only)
As for usage, it seems to be mostly confined to the field of medicine, with some usage beyond that. There are quite a few hits for the word in the title of scholarly papers (in the field of medicine of course), like this one. Some of the results I found, like this one and this one don’t seem connected to medicine.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : anongoodnurse , Answer Author : Laurel
