Gnomonic terms in the Serbian language

Abstract

In Serbia, as in many other European countries, there has been a widespread revival of interest in gnomonics in recent decades. An increasing number of sundials and a growing number of publications on gnomonics demonstrate the popularity of sundialling. Accordingly, it is interesting to find out which gnomonic terms are used, when they appeared and how they developed. In Serbia (and the countries formed after the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia), societies of gnomonics enthusiasts do not exist and therefore it is not reasonable to expect any concern intended to preserve gnomonic heritage or the existence of the gnomonic terminological system. This assumption has been confirmed by the analysis of publications in the field of gnomonics published in the Serbian language. Due to unfavorable historical circumstances in the Balkans, Serbian scientific terminology began to form rather late (19th century) and the first gnomonic terms appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. They were introduced in the articles of the Serbian astronomers, professors Milan Nedeljkovic (1902) and Vojislav V. Miskovic (1930; 1932). However, most of these terms have not been preserved. Contemporary gnomonic terminology is multidisciplinary, and when the terms belonging to neighboring sciences are removed, a small number of gnomonic terms remains. Among them, the following four are the key ones: gnomon, gnomonic projection, sundial and gnomonics. In this paper, a modified definition of the most important term — gnomon has been proposed as well as the definitions of all other key gnomonic terms related to it.