hourglass

hourglass

English

Wooden hourglass

Etymology

hour +‎ glass

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈaʊəɡlɑːs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

hourglass (plural hourglasses)

1. A clock made of two glass vessels connected by a narrow passage through which sand flows.

   Synonyms: sandglass, sand timer, watch glass

   Hyponym: egg timer

   After each game turn, invert the hourglass to reset the time limit for the next player.

   • 1819, John Keats, “Canto I”, in The Fall of Hyperion:

     The sands of thy short life are spent this hour, / And no hand in the universe can turn / Thy hourglass, if these gummed leaves be burnt / Ere thou canst mount up these immortal steps.

2. (graphical user interface) A cursor, often shaped like an hourglass, indicating that the computer is busy.

   Synonym: egg timer

   Coordinate term: (Apple) beach ball

   • 2002, Maximum PC (Winter 2002, page 16)

     When I right click the desktop display to check Display Properties, it hangs and shows me only the hourglass instead of the display menu.

Derived terms

• hourglass corset
• hourglass drum
• hourglassed
• hourglass figure
• hourglassing
• hourglass-shaped

 

Translations

clock

Arabic: سَاعَة رَمْلِيَّة‎ f (sāʿa ramliyya) Armenian: ավազի ժամացույց (avazi žamacʿuycʿ) Asturian: reló d'arena m Azerbaijani: qum saatı Belarusian: пясо́чны гадзі́ннік m (pjasóčny hadzínnik) Breton: eurier-traezh m Bulgarian: пя́съчен часо́вник m (pjásǎčen časóvnik) Burmese: သဲနာရီ (my) (sai:nari) Catalan: rellotge de sorra m Chinese: Cantonese: 沙漏 (saa1 lau6) Mandarin: 沙漏 (zh) (shālòu), 沙鐘／沙钟 (shāzhōng), 沙壺／沙壶 (shāhú) Min Nan: 沙漏 (soa-lāu) Czech: přesýpací hodiny (cs) f pl Danish: timeglas (da) n Dutch: zandloper (nl) m Esperanto: sablohorloĝo Estonian: liivakell Finnish: tiimalasi (fi) French: sablier (fr) m Galician: reloxo de area (gl) Georgian: ქვიშის საათი (kvišis saati) German: Sanduhr (de) f Greek: κλεψύδρα (el) f (klepsýdra) Gujarati: રેતઘડી f (retaghḍī) Hindi: रेतघड़ी f (retghaṛī), बालू घड़ी f (bālū ghaṛī) Hungarian: homokóra (hu) Icelandic: tímaglas n, stundaglas n Ido: sablo-horlojo (io) Indonesian: jam pasir (id) Italian: clessidra (it) f Japanese: 砂時計 (すなどけい, sunadokei), 砂漏 (さろう, sarō) Kazakh: құм сағат (qūm sağat) Khmer: នាឡិកាខ្សាច់ (niəlekaa khsac) Korean: 모래시계 (moraesigye), 사루(沙漏) (saru), 사루계(沙漏計) (sarugye) Kumyk: хум сагьат (xum sahat) Kyrgyz: кум саат (kum saat) Lao: ນາລິກາຊາຍ (nā li kā sāi) Latvian: smilšu pulkstenis m Lithuanian: smėlio laikrodis m Macedonian: пе́сочен ча́совник m (pésočen čásovnik), пе́сочник m (pésočnik) Malay: jam pasir Norman: hôlouoge à sablion f Norwegian: Bokmål: timeglass n Nynorsk: timeglas n Persian: ساعت شنی‎ (sâ'at-e šeni) Polish: klepsydra (pl) f, zegar piaskowy m inan Portuguese: ampulheta (pt) f Romanian: nisiparniță (ro) f, clepsidră (ro) f Russian: песо́чные часы́ (ru) m pl (pesóčnyje časý) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: пешча̀нӣк m, пјешча̀нӣк m, пешчани сат m, пјешчани сат m, пешчани часовник m, пјешчани часовник m Roman: peščànīk m, pješčànīk (sh) m, peščani sat m, pješčani sat m, peščani časovnik m, pješčani časovnik m Slovak: presýpacie hodiny f pl Slovene: peščena ura f Spanish: reloj de arena m, ampolleta (es) f Swedish: timglas (sv) n Tajik: соати регӣ (soati regī) Thai: นาฬิกาทราย (th) (naa-lí-gaa-saai) Turkish: kum saati (tr) Ukrainian: піскови́й годи́нник m (piskovýj hodýnnyk) Urdu: ریت گھڑی‎ f (ret ghaṛī) Uzbek: qum soat Vietnamese: đồng hồ cát Welsh: awrwydr (cy) m

See also

• ⏳, ⌛
• tempus fugit

Further reading

• hourglass on Wikipedia.Wikipedia