Daily AncestorOptician
An optician made, fitted or sold spectacles and other lenses.
Wiktionary defines an optician as a person who makes, dispenses or sells lenses and spectacles. Today a dispensing optician fills a prescription from an optometrist or eye doctor, while a lab optician grinds and finishes the lenses.
Spectacle making is old: the first known painting of eyeglasses is a fresco by Tommaso da Modena from 1352. In British usage optician can also mean a person who tests eyes, what Americans call an optometrist.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1900 census
Ferdinand Gleich, 46, Optician, Baden
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Optician." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/optician. Last checked 2026-10-12.