| 释义 |
Greenwich|ˈgrɪnɪdʒ, ˈgrɛn-, -ɪtʃ|
A town on the south bank of the Thames adjoining London on the east, famous for its astronomical observatory and its hospital formerly occupied by naval pensioners; used attrib. in † Greenwich barber slang, a retailer of sand from the Greenwich pits (Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue 1785); † Greenwich-goose slang, a pensioner of Greenwich Hospital (ibid.); Greenwich stars, ‘those used for lunar computations in the nautical ephemeris’ (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 1867); Greenwich time, mean time for the meridian of Greenwich, adopted as the standard time by English astronomers.
1861Dickens Gt. Expect. xxv, At nine o'clock every night, Greenwich time..the gun fires. 1893G. E. Matheson About Holland 31 The Dutch railway companies have, however, recently adopted Greenwich time.
Add: Greenwich mean time = Greenwich time (and now the usu. term); abbrev. G.M.T. s.v. G f.
[1859G. B. Airy Rep. Astronomer Royal to Board of Visitors 4 June 15 The Motor Clock..is adjusted most accurately every day, to Greenwich Mean Solar Time. This is the same clock which drops the Time Ball.] 1863Cornh. Mag. VII. 388 The transferal of *Greenwich mean time into sidereal, and vice versâ. 1985A. Pilling Henry's Leg x. 62 Mr Schofield usually went round at twelve o'clock Greenwich Mean Time rewinding and resetting; Henry had helped him once.
Greenwich meridian, the prime meridian (0°), passing through Greenwich, from which measurements of longitude are calculated (adopted by international agreement in 1884).
1870Pop. Sci. Rev. IX. 358 The sun arrives at the *Greenwich meridian 10 minutes before it arrives at the Bristol meridian. 1951A. C. Clarke Sands of Mars ii. 15 We keep normal Earth-Time—Greenwich Meridian—aboard the [space-]ship. 1988Hutchinson Encycl. (ed. 8) 533/2 The source of Greenwich Mean Time has been moved to Herstmonceux, but the Greenwich meridian (0°) remains unchanged. |