gnomon means an object such as a pillar or a rod that is used to tell time by the shadow it casts when the sun shines on it, especially the pointer on a sundial. It carries an Arena rating of 1523, earned across 4 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, gnomon ranks #337 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #1,303 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #1,370 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #2,712 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words.
gnomon is pronounced /ˈnəʊˌmɒn/.
Why “gnomon” is a great word
The part of a sundial that casts a shadow used to tell the time, usually a raised metal blade or rod. From Latin gnōmōn, from Ancient Greek γνώμων (gnṓmōn, “indicator, interpreter; carpenter’s square”), from γιγνώσκω (gignṓskō, “to know, perceive”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”). First attested in English in the 1540s. Unlike “dial” (which refers to the whole graduated face) or “style” (which specifies the slanted edge for geometric precision), a gnomon is the stark, defining silhouette—the object that makes knowledge from absence. It is the stationary finger of bronze on a sun-bleached pedestal, the sharp black line creeping across Roman numerals carved in stone, and the single, unwavering witness whose moving testimony is cast in pure negation—a monument to light built entirely from darkness.
Etymology
Borrowed from French gnomon, or directly from its etymon Latin gnōmōn, or directly from its etymon Ancient Greek γνώμων (gnṓmōn, “discerner, interpreter; carpenter’s square; gnomon of a sundial; (geometry) gnomon”), from γιγνώσκω (gignṓskō, “to be aware of; to perceive; to know”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”); the word is thus related to know. The geometry sense (sense 4) is from the resemblance of the plane figure to a carpenter’s square. Similarly, a gnomon in mathematics (sense 5) is also shaped like a carpenter’s square when depicted pictorially if the figurate numbers are squares.
noun
- An object such as a pillar or a rod that is used to tell time by the shadow it casts when the sun shines on it, especially the pointer on a sundial.
- An object such as a pillar used by an observer to calculate the meridian altitude of the sun (that is, the altitude of the sun when it reaches the observer's meridian), for the purpose of determining the observer's latitude.
- The index of the hour circle of a globe.e.g.“Index of a globe, the little style or gnomon, which being fixed on the pole of the globe, and turning round with it, points out the hours upon the hour circle.” — 1809, William Nicholson, “Index of a globe”, in The British Encyclopedia, or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; […], volume III (E … I), London: Printed by C[harles] Whittingham, […]; for Longman, Hurst
- A plane figure formed by removing a parallelogram from a corner of a larger parallelogram.
- A number representing the increment between two figurate numbers (“numbers equal to the numbers of dots in geometric figures formed of dots”).
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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