Earth & SkyGreek → English
Analemma
/ˌænəˈlɛmə/noun
The elongated figure-eight the sun traces in the sky when photographed at the same clock time through a year.
The Greek roots
ἀνά
aná
up
λαμβάνειν
lambánein
to take, receive
Literally: “something taken up, a prop”
The story of the word
An ἀνάλημμα was something taken up: a prop, a support, and specifically the pedestal a sundial stood on. From the pedestal the word moved to the geometric construction used to lay out the dial's lines, and Ptolemy wrote a whole treatise called On the Analemma. Astronomy later repurposed it for the lopsided loop that reveals how far the sun runs ahead of and behind the clock.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
dilemmasyllableepilepsycatalepsy
In a sentence
He left the camera bolted to the roof for a year and got a clean analemma.