Nychthemeron

Nychthemeron /nɪkˈθɛmərɒn/, occasionally nycthemeron or nuchthemeron, is a period of 24 consecutive hours. It is sometimes used, especially in technical literature, to avoid the ambiguity inherent in the term day.

The Nychthemeron Clock in Snowshill Manor, Gloucestershire, UK

It is the period of time that a calendar normally labels with a date, although a nychthemeron simply designates a time-span that can start at any time, not just midnight.

Etymology

It is a loanword from Ancient Greek νυχθήμερον (nukhthḗmeron), which appears in the New Testament.[1] This is a noun use of the neuter singular form of Ancient Greek: νυχθήμερος, romanized: nukhthḗmeros, lit. 'lasting a day and night', from νύξ (núx, “night”) + ἡμέρα (hēméra, “day”).

Look up nychthemeron or νυχθήμερον in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

In other languages

Some languages have a word for 24 hours, or more loosely a day plus a night in no particular order. Unlike a calendar date, only the length is defined, with no particular start or end. Furthermore, these words are considered basic and native to these languages, so unlike nychthemeron they are not associated with jargon.

Words for 24 hours are listed in the middle column. For comparison, the word for day, in the meaning of daytime, the sunlit state, the opposite of night, is also listed in the rightmost column:

LanguageFamily24 hoursSunlit state
DanishGermanicdøgndag
Norwegian (Bokmål)Germanicdøgndag
Norwegian (Nynorsk)Germanicdøgn, døgerdag
SwedishGermanicdygndag
IcelandicGermanicsólarhringur ("sun-circle")dagur
FaroeseGermanicsamdøgurdagur
Old NorseGermanicdǿgr, dǿgndagr
North FrisianGermaniceetlemdäi
West FrisianGermanicetmeldei
DutchGermanicetmaaldag
EsperantoInternational auxiliary languagediurno,[2] tagnokto[3] ("day-night")tago
FinnishUralicvuorokausi ("turn-period")päivä
EstonianUralicööpäev ("night-day")päev
North SámiUralicjándorbeaivi
LatvianBalticdiennakts ("day-night")diena
LithuanianBalticparadiena
PolishSlavicdobadzień
RussianSlavicсутки [ˈsutkʲɪ]день
HebrewSemiticיממהיום
BulgarianSlavicденонощие ("day-night")ден
BengaliIndo-Aryanদিবারাত্রি, দিনরাতদিন
SanskritIndo-Aryanअहोरात्रदिन
TamilTamilநாள்பகல்
UkrainianSlavicдобадень
SwahiliBantusikumchana
Indonesian/MalayMalayicharisiang
JapaneseJaponic日昼
KoreanKoreanic일낮
KannadaKannada–Badagaದಿನಹಗಲು
GermanGermanicEtmalLichter Tag
WelshCelticdiwrnod; dwthwn ('that day')dydd
YiddishGermanicֵמֵעֵת לְעֵתטאָג

The word dag, as in the Nordic languages, is etymologically the same as day in English.

References
  1. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  2. diurn/o in Reta Vortaro
  3. nokt/o in Reta Vortaro


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