Hypertext Webster Gateway: "gnomon"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Gnomon \Gno"mon\, n. [L. gnomon, Gr. ? one that knows, the index
of a sundial. See {Gnome}.]
1. (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.
2. (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.
3. (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.
4. The index of the hour circle of a globe.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
gnomon
n : indicator provided by the stationary arm whose shadow
indicates the time on the sundial
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