Astrolabe
Noun
Pronunciation
A-struh-layb
Definition
- a compact instrument used to observe and
calculate the position of celestial bodies before the invention of the sextant
Examples
"His astrolabe of silver was the gift of the Emperor of
Germany…." — Sir Walter Scott, Quentin Durward, 1823
"The astrolabe, whose invention is often attributed to
the Greek astronomer Hipparchus, places the Earth at the center of the
universe, with all celestial bodies orbiting around it." — Grégory
Gardinetti, CNN.com, 6 Jan. 2016
Did You Know?
"Thyn Astrolabie hath a ring to putten on the thombe of
thi right hond in taking the height of thinges." Thus begins a description
of the astrolabe in A Treatise on the Astrolabe, a medieval user's guide penned
by an amateur astronomer by the name of Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer is best known
for his Middle English poetic masterpiece The Canterbury Tales, but when his
nose wasn't buried in his writing, Chaucer was stargazing, and some of his
passion for the heavens rubbed off on his son Lewis, who had displayed a
special "abilite to lerne sciences touching nombres and proporciouns."
Chaucer dedicated his treatise to the 10-year-old boy, setting his instructions
not in the usual Latin, but in "naked wordes in Englissh" so that
little Lewis could understand. When he got older, Lewis may have learned that
the word astrolabe traces to the Greek name for the instrument.
Test Your Vocabulary
Unscramble the letters to create the name for an instrument
for observing altitudes of a celestial body from a moving ship or aircraft:
NCATTO.
Merriam-Webster
No comments:
Post a Comment