nadir
English
WOTD – 23 September 2006
Etymology
From Medieval Latin nadir, from Arabic نَظِير السَّمْت (naẓīr as-samt), composed of نَظِير (naẓīr, “counterpart, corresponding to”) and السَّمْت (as-samt, “the zenith”)
Pronunciation
Noun
nadir (plural nadirs)
- The point of the celestial sphere, directly opposite the zenith; inferior pole of the horizon; point of the celestial sphere directly under the place of observation.
- Antonym: zenith
- 1638, Sir Thomas Herbert, Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique:
- […] when we are Nadyr to the Sunne, we have no ſhadow […]
- (figuratively) The lowest point; time of greatest depression.
- 1837, Henry Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries:
- […] the seventh century is the nadir of the human mind in Europe […]
- 1950, Elizabeth Janeway, edited by Helen Hull, The Writer’s Book:
- In this nadir of poetic repute, when the only verse that most people read from one year’s end to the next is what appears on greetings cards, it is well for us to stop and consider our poets.
- 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 175:
- The myth describes the dangerous moment of the nadir, the dead of winter, the moment when it is not known whether the world will be re-created and another cycle will bring on another spring.
- (astronomy) The axis of a projected conical shadow; the direction of the force of gravity at a location; down.
- Synonym: down
- The nadir of the sun is the axis of the shadow projected by the Earth.
- (beekeeping, archaic) An empty box added beneath a full one in a beehive to give the colony more room to expand or store honey.
Translations
point of the sky
|
figuratively the lowest point
|
Verb
nadir (third-person singular simple present nadirs, present participle nadiring, simple past and past participle nadired)
- (transitive, beekeeping) To extend (a beehive) by adding an empty box at the base.
References
- Henry Taylor (1860) The Beekeepers Manual, page 24
Further reading
- Nadir (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Azerbaijani
Cyrillic | надир | |
---|---|---|
Abjad |
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [nɑːˈdir]
- Hyphenation: na‧dir
Audio (file)
French
Etymology
As for the English word.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /na.diʁ/
Audio (file)
Further reading
- “nadir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
Galician
Noun
nadir m (plural nadires)
- nadir (point of the celestial sphere directly under the place where the observer stands)
Further reading
- “nadir”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, since 2012
Italian
Etymology
From Medieval Latin nadir, from Arabic نَظِير السَّمْت (naẓīr as-samt), composed of نَظِير (naẓīr, “counterpart, corresponding to”) and السَّمْت (as-samt, “the zenith”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /naˈdir/
- Rhymes: -ir
- Hyphenation: na‧dìr
Polish
Etymology
Borrowed from Medieval Latin nadir, from Arabic نَظِير (naẓīr).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈna.dir/
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -adir
- Syllabification: na‧dir
Noun
nadir m inan
Declension
Portuguese
Pronunciation
- (Brazil) IPA(key): /naˈd͡ʒi(ʁ)/ [naˈd͡ʒi(h)]
- (São Paulo) IPA(key): /naˈd͡ʒi(ɾ)/
- (Rio de Janeiro) IPA(key): /naˈd͡ʒi(ʁ)/ [naˈd͡ʒi(χ)]
- (Southern Brazil) IPA(key): /naˈd͡ʒi(ɻ)/
- (Portugal) IPA(key): /naˈdiɾ/ [naˈðiɾ]
- (Southern Portugal) IPA(key): /naˈdi.ɾi/ [naˈði.ɾi]
- Hyphenation: na‧dir
Romanian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /naˈdir/
Declension
Further reading
- nadir in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /naˈdiɾ/ [naˈð̞iɾ]
- Rhymes: -iɾ
- Syllabification: na‧dir
Noun
nadir m (plural nadires)
- nadir (point of the celestial sphere directly under the place where the observer stands)
Further reading
- “nadir”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
Turkish
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Synonyms
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