Earth & SkyGreek → English
Anemometer
/ˌænɪˈmɒmɪtər/noun
An instrument that measures wind speed.
The Greek roots
ἄνεμος
ánemos
wind
μέτρον
métron
measure
Literally: “wind measure”
The story of the word
ἄνεμος is the word Homer uses for the winds that scatter fleets, and it sits on the Tower of the Winds in Athens, where eight of them are carved as men. The instrument is far younger, but the name was in English by the eighteenth century, well before Robinson's four-cup design of 1846. Anemone carries the same root: the wind-flower, said to open when the spring wind blows.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
Same family
anemonethermometerbarometermetric
In a sentence
The anemometer on the roof read forty knots, which explained the noise in the chimney.