This is why people describe the activity as much as the person. “I’m going to get my eyes checked” rather than “I’m going to the optometrist”.
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Well I say I’m going to the optometrist. (Every two years.) I’d only go to the ophthalmologist if something was seriously wrong with my eyes. I’d only go the the oculist if I was time travelling back to the 1850s.
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Maybe I was off by 50 years or so. I found this ad in a 1905 newspaper (right below an ad for an optometrist).
And this doctor from 1901 sounds promising. I mean, “relief in all cases within the reach of human agency”! How could I go wrong?
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Hey, JPR, I know how much you love learning linguistic nuances, so I’ll just point out that vulgar as commonly used in English means rude or coarse more than colloquial or casual which is what calling an ophthalmologist an eye doctor is.
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Damn Portuguese equivalents… vulgar is also a Portuguese word, but not with that nuance 
Got it! Appreciate the correction 
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Except in linguistic contexts it still means colloquial and common. In this context I think vulgar is used correctly
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I think that generally the connotation is quite negative in normal usage. Historically, yes it meant common, but if I say a word is vulgar, people will generally take it to mean that it shouldn’t be used in polite conversation.
From oxforddictionaries.com:
vulgar
ADJECTIVE
Lacking sophistication or good taste.
‘a vulgar check suit’Making explicit and offensive reference to sex or bodily functions; coarse and rude.
‘a vulgar joke’(dated) Characteristic of or belonging to ordinary people.
It’s that last definition which means colloquial or common and it’s marked as dated because most readers today will understand the word as meaning one of the first two.
And with regard to language and linguistics specifically, you can read this:
which necessarily implies some form of negative judgement (“perceived fault”), which is separate from colloquialism which is everyday speech, but doesn’t necessarily contain any faults or implied negative judgement. I’d include “eye doctor” in the latter grouping.
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Maybe Koichi is a pirate and he meant to say “Aye, doctorrrrrr”
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I was definitely thinking about it this way and wondering what is vulgar about the term “eye doctor”.
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I agree with you that “from time to time” should be added as an official synonym. But it doesn’t bother me so much because “sometimes” is more commonly used in English than “from time to time”.
What bothers me more is for the kanji 君, the reading is the onyomi クン but the meaning is “buddy” and “boy name ender” is not an official synonym.
This creates a mismatch because when 君 means “you, buddy, pal”, it’s always read as きみ and when it means “boy name suffix” it’s always read as クン.
I’m not sure if this has been addressed yet, but I’d be careful using the synonym “Ophthalmologist” for “Eye Doctor,” as an ophthalmologist is technically different from an Optometrist. Both are eye doctors, but an Opht is an MD (more surgeries and medical procedures) while an Opt is an OD (more routine check-ups and referrals to other Opht’s if a medical procedure needs to be done).
Although I’m not sure if the kanji is different between the two, I just know that being an Optometrist (which is nothing but a technician/nurse), we’re constantly referring out to MDs.
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And what is an oculist?
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In Spanish we have “Oculista” but also “Oftalmologo” so both are fine by me 
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That’s for whenever the patient needs otherwordly help, generally because the patient is noncompliant.
Only the powers of the mathematics of hacking into the universe and, in extreme cases, using the influence of Yog-Sothoth, Cthulhu, and the like can make the patient take their stupid eye drops every hour instead of “whenever it starts hurting” and to stop sleeping in your dang contacts!!!
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Not sure why ‘oculist’ is weird. It’s what we call it in Italian (oculista), I never suspected it wasn’t that old fashioned in modern English.
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