GNOMON • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Gnomon

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noun

Gnomon n.

(Dialing) The style or pin, which by its shadow, shows the hour of the day. It is usually set parallel to the earth's axis.

(Astron.) A style or column erected perpendicularly to the horizon, formerly used in astronomocal observations. Its principal use was to find the altitude of the sun by measuring the length of its shadow.

(Geom.) The space included between the boundary lines of two similar parallelograms, the one within the other, with an angle in common; as, the gnomon bcdefg of the parallelograms ac and af. The parallelogram bf is the complement of the parallelogram df.

The index of the hour circle of a globe.

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Etymology of 'Gnomon'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Gnomon" Quotes from Famous Books

... This will appear if the whole sentence be read uno haustu; Zeller p. 78 seems to take the same view, but I have not come across anything exactly like this in the Greek. Quasi: this points out normam as a trans. of some Gk. word, [Greek: kriterion] perhaps, or [Greek: gnomon] or [Greek: kanon]. Notiones rerum: Stoic [Greek: ennoiai]; Zeller 81—84, R. and P. 367, 368. Quodque natura: the omission of eam is strange; Faber supplies it. Imprimerentur: the terms [Greek: enapesphragismene, enapomemagmene, entetypomene] occur constantly, ...

— Academica • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... the position of the sun by the shadow of a peg driven into the wall, but this gradually developed into a regular dial) one of which remained of use for some time; and was still to be seen in the same place during the first half of the present century, only with the gnomon gone. In 1844 the stone on which it was carved was carefully extracted and presented to the Royal Society, who preserve it in their library. The letters WTON roughly carved on it ...

— Pioneers of Science • Oliver Lodge

Words linked to "Gnomon" : indicator, sundial