Message-ID: <26381444.1075858928199.JavaMail.evans@thyme> Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 21:01:40 -0700 (PDT) From: wsmith@wordsmith.org To: linguaphile@wordsmith.org Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gnomon Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: Wordsmith @ENRON X-To: linguaphile@wordsmith.org X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \SSCOTT5 (Non-Privileged)\Scott, Susan M.\Wordsmith X-Origin: Scott-S X-FileName: SSCOTT5 (Non-Privileged).pst gnomon (NO-mon) noun 1. The raised arm of a sundial that indicates the time of day by its shadow. 2. The remaining part of a parallelogram after a similar smaller parallelogram has been taken away from one of the corners. [From Latin gnomon, pointer, from Greek, from gignoskein, to know.] "Eighty-six years in the making, one of the world's largest sundials has finally been installed at Place de la Concorde, as part of the Year 2000 festivities of the City of Paris. It takes an approach more cerebral than celebratory. The sundial's pointer, or gnomon, is the 109-foot Obelisk of Luxor. Its base is the northern half of Place de la Concorde." Rose Marie Burke, Sundial Aids Millennium Countdown, The Wall Street Journal, Oct 26, 1999. This week's theme: words for odds and ends. ............................................................................ Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (1623-1662) Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone." Invite your friends and family to join in the quest by sending a gift subscription of A.Word.A.Day. It is free! http://wordsmith.org/awad/gift.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/gnomon.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/gnomon.ram