To concentrate or direct attention, light, or effort toward a central point or specific target.
From 'focal' (adjective meaning relating to a focus) + '-ize' (American verb-forming suffix). Derives ultimately from Latin 'focus' meaning 'hearth,' which became a technical term in optics and geometry before becoming a general word for concentration of attention.
When photographers and scientists talk about 'focusing' a lens, they're using a word descended from the Latin word for fireplace—because the earliest observations of how light concentrates at a point came from studying how fires cast light.
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