Yes, I agree that in English the best word would be some kind of "offset" most likely for local longitude. Offset has near synonyms like "displacement" or "correction." But it is appropriate here because but it generally implies either side-to-side or quantitative movement. It also implies compensation for something. It can also be used for monetary adjustments.
But I was struck by "dischrony." My own version of this term is dyschromia/dyschromic. I came up with from dyslexic/dyslesia to describe a quasi-medical derangement that I suffer from. It means a congenital inability to remember dates and times correctly. If you tell me a meeting is at 2:30 on March 3, I will probably remember 1:30 on March 2 or maybe 3:30 on March 1. I live in fear of being late for meetings or appointments (or missing them entirely) so I usually end up being the first person to arrive. But this is only because I now rely on my Iphone. I enter everything carefully into my phone using, 24 hour notation, and check it compulsively before I think I may have to be somewhere. The time my brain remembers on its own is almost always wrong: I once showed up for an (thankfully unimportant) group meeting an hour early, a day late but a week early. (Sunday at 2:00 PM for a meeting the following Saturday at 3:00 PM.) That was before I had a PDA or an Iphone. Jack Aubert -----Original Message----- From: sundial <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Frank King Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2019 8:03 AM To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: dischrony Dear Fabio, An interesting message... > In Italy some sundials show the > written 'costante locale'... I find Italian gnomonic vocabulary great fun. There are technical terms which sound very good in Italian but sound very odd when directly translated into English. I especially enjoy 'Foro gnomonico' and 'Meridiana a camera oscura'. I share your dislike of 'costante locale'. This could be interpreted in many ways. Is it the height above sea level or the local latitude or something else? In English I often use the word 'offset' and this can be 'an angular offset' or 'a time offset' or 'a displacement offset' and for 'costante locale' I would usually write: the local longitude offset It helps that in England, the local reference meridian is Greenwich but to be more precise I would write: the longitude offset from the reference meridian for the local time zone >From where I am sitting: My longitude offset (from the Greenwich meridian) is one-eighth of a degree east or 30 seconds of time. 'Offset' is used for angles, time or distance. Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
