| 释义 |
‖ clepsydra|ˈklɛpsɪdrə|
Pl. -as, and -æ.
[Lat., a. Gr. κλεψύδρα, f. Gr. κλεψ- combining form from κλέπτ-ειν to steal + ὕδωρ water. The name was also applied to intermittent fountains or ‘ebbing wells’. Blount has the Fr. form clepsydre.]
An instrument used by the ancients to measure time by the discharge of water; a water-clock.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. v. xviii. 259 They measured the hours not only by..water in glasses called Clepsydræ, but also by sand in glasses called Clepsammia. 1656Blount Glossogr., Clepsydre (clepsydra), a water-Dyal. 1741–70E. Carter Lett. (1808) 43 You are not one of those orators whom I could wish confined to a Clepsydra. 1837Whewell Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857) I. 149 Clepsydras..were used by astronomers. 1878Lockyer Star-gazing 36. |