Present participle of focus; concentrating attention or effort on a particular subject, activity, or goal.
From Latin focus 'hearth, fireplace', originally referring to the central fire around which Roman family life revolved. The optical sense developed in the 17th century when scientists noticed how lenses could concentrate light rays to a single point, like gathering around a hearth. The mental concentration meaning followed by analogy.
The evolution from 'hearth' to 'concentration' beautifully captures how we understand attention - just as a hearth draws people together around warmth and light, focusing draws our mental resources to a single point. Modern productivity culture has made focusing almost sacred, spawning entire industries around attention management and 'deep work'.
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