theodolite
See also: théodolite
English edit
Etymology edit
From New Latin theodolitus (1571), perhaps containing Ancient Greek θέᾱ (théā, “sight, view”)[1] and Arabic العِضَادَة (al-ʕiḍāda, “astrolabe, alidade”);[2][3] if so, doublet of alidade.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
theodolite (plural theodolites)
- A surveying instrument, consisting of a small mounted telescope, used to measure horizontal and vertical angles.
- c. 1839, T. L. Mitchell, Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia[1], volume 2:
- I drew outlines (according to my usual custom) of all the hills on the horizon before us, and took angles on them with the theodolite.
- 1839, Robert FitzRoy, Phillip Parker King, Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836, […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 356:
- The height of those mountains was from five to seven thousand feet above our level, by angular measurement with a theodolite.
- 1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “What I Saw of the Destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, book I (The Coming of the Martians), page 91:
- It was a lieutenant and a couple of privates of the 8th Hussars, with a stand like a theodolite, which the artilleryman told me was a heliograph.
- 1918, Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams[2]:
- Germany, of all countries, was most vitally concerned in it; but even a cave-dweller in La Fayette Square, seeking only a measure of motion since the Crusades, saw before his eyes, in the spring of 1903, a survey of future order or anarchy that would exhaust the power of his telescopes and defy the accuracy of his theodolites.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
instrument
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See also edit
References edit
- ^ “theodolite”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
- ^ Olry Terquem, Nouvelles annales de mathématiques, Vol. 20, Paris, 1861, pp. 35/36/37/38
- ^ Hexagon Metrology, A Brief History Of Theodolites [article], portable-cmmm.com, Ed° décembre 2006, p. 13