Word of the Day: Gnomon

The other day I was having lunch with the Gnome (the younger one, not the old and now unfortunately gaga one) when I realised that the origins of the name would make good material for a WotD post. Indeed, the Greek word gnomon has its roots in the much more familiar gnosis.

What is gnosis? It is the Greek word for 'knowledge'. It's found in modern English words such as 'diagnosis' ('knowledge across the area'), 'prognosis' ('forward knowledge'), and 'agnostic' ('without knowledge'). Gnomon therefore means 'the thing that knows', or 'the thing that points towards knowledge'.

In a technical sense, gnomon normally refers to the pointer on a sundial, which indicates the time. This pointer can be a wedge-shaped, rod-shaped, or fin-shaped object; the only requirement is that it casts a shadow. I hear that NASA has a more sophisticated version; the thing hangs from a surveyor's tripod and has a colour scale, a size scale and a reflectance scale. This version can be set up on any other body in space and used to determine (by remote viewing) the colour, reflectance and size of its surroundings.

The word gnomon comes to us also as 'gnome'. This simply means 'one who knows', or perhaps 'one who leads to or shows knowledge'. A 'gnomic utterance' is something like an oracle, a saying of the wise. I have been listening a lot to various gnomes these days; they dig around and come up with the most amazing facts and ideas. Traditionally and mythologically, gnomes have always been small earth-dwelling beings; in that sense, they are chthonian, and thus (you might say) very down-to-earth.