Thank you to everyone who responded, on or off list, to my inquiry about
the etymology of the word 'hectemoros'. I've learned that it is a Greek
word meaning 'one sixth part', i.e. the fraction 1/6 (hect- comparable
to the prefix hex- in hexagon.). That easily explains why the serfs I
mentioned in my question were the hectemoroi : they were the 'one-sixth'
people because of the rents they had to pay.
The term as used in gnomonics refers to either the angle between the
current position of the sun and either the east and west points of the
local horizon, or the great circle through those same points. Why
hectemoros?
Apparently it was named as such by Ptolemy for his version of the
analemma (analemma in the archaic sense of a projection). The great
circle in question gets projected as a straight line that when divided
in 6 parts represents the 6 hours between noon and dawn or dusk - thus
it is the line of sixths, and from that the great circle that mapped to
the line became the hectemoros circle.
Thanks again,
Steve
I'm looking for an etymological explanation of the word 'hectemoros' as
used in gnomonics for the direct angle between the East (or West)
Cardinal Point and the current position of the sun on the celestial
sphere.
I have scoured the Internet but the only meaning I can find relates to a
class of person in ancient Greece - serfs who paid one sixth of their
income as rent. Thanks in advance for information about the derivation
as it relates to dialing.
---------------------------------------------------
https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
