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.