analemma means A figure-eight curve that results when the Sun's position in the sky is plotted out over the year at the same hour of mean solar time every day. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 94 out of 100.
analemma is pronounced /ˌæn.əˈlɛm.ə/.
Why “analemma” is a great word
The distinctive figure-eight curve traced by the Sun's position in the sky at the same clock time each day over a year. Its name descends from Ancient Greek ἀνάλημμα (análēmma, 'pedestal of a sundial'), via Latin analēmma ('pedestal of a sundial, sundial'). Unlike the 'ecliptic'—the Sun's apparent great-circle path through the stars—or the 'sundial'—the time-telling device from which it borrows its name—the analemma is the graphic signature of our tilted, elliptical orbit. It is the grand celestial doodle burned onto a single photographic plate by three-hundred-and-sixty-five patient exposures; it is the elegant lemniscate suspended in the corner of an ancient globe, a cartographer's quiet concession to cosmic irregularity; it is the celestial hinge between clock-time and sun-time, a permanent record of the year's accumulated haste and delay. In its loop we see the wobbling of our path around a flame, the imperfect marriage of mathematics and light.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ἀνάλημμα (análēmma, “pedestal of a sundial”).
noun
- A figure-eight curve that results when the Sun's position in the sky is plotted out over the year at the same hour of mean solar time every day.“People commonly encounter the equation of time in a strangely distorted figure 8, the analemma (Figure 6.5), frequently seen on terrestrial globes. The analemma is the equation of time plotted against the Sun's declination.”