| 释义 |
Nilometer|naɪˈlɒmɪtə(r)|
[ad. Gr. νειλοµέτριον, on the analogy of words in -meter.]
A graduated pillar or other vertical surface, serving as a scale or gauge to indicate the height to which the Nile rises during its annual floods.
The form Nilometrion is used in R. Cumberland's essay on Jewish Measures and Weights (1686) 13, etc.
1707Curios. Husbandry 192 The Egyptians compute the Height to which the Nile rises by a Vessel which they call a Niloscope, or Nilometer. 1741–3Pococke Descr. East I. 117 There was a temple to Cnuphis in this island [Elephantine], and a Nilometer to measure the rise of the Nile. 1790Bruce Trav. Nile III. 689 Omar..destroyed the Grecian Nilometer from motives of religion. 1849Curzon Monast. Levant 28 This Nilometer is an ancient octagon pillar of red stone in the island of Rhoda. 1887Rawlinson & Gilman Anc. Egypt (ed. 2) vi. 114 Anxious eyes gaze daily on the sluggish stream, or consult the ‘Nilometers’.
fig.1848Blackw. Mag. LXIV. 118 The Pyramids are the Nilometer of antiquity. 1876J. Martineau Ess. & Addr. (1891) IV. 270 A kind of Nilometer which shows the shifting levels and gathering floods of thought.
b. A small model of the above (see quots.).
1794Phil. Trans. LXXXIV. 188 A mummy..in which..idols, beetles, frogs..nilometers, &c. were found. 1848Cottrell tr. Bunsen's Egypt's Place I. vi. 382 [Phthah's] ordinary mode of representation is as a god holding before him with both hands the so-called Nilometer, or emblem of stability. Ibid. 416 Osiris..appears with a barbaric countenance, the Nilometer, and large feathers of Ammon on his head.
So ˈniloscope. [ad. Gr. νειλοσκοπεῖον.] rare.
An earlier form is nilescope.
1707[see above]. 1727–38Chambers Cycl., Nilometer, or Niloscope. 1855in Ogilvie Suppl. |