GNOMON

gnomon, the greek word for the style of a sundial, or any object, commonly a vertical column, the shadow of which was observed in former times in order to learn the altitude of the sun, especially when on the meridian. the art of constructing a sundial is sometimes termed _gnomonics_. in geometry, a gnomon is a plane figure formed by removing a parallelogram from a corner of a larger parallelogram; in the figure abcdefa is a gnomon. gnomonic projection is a projection of a sphere in which the centre of sight is the centre of the sphere. a b ------------------- / / / / f /------- e / / / / / / / ------------------- d c gnosticism (gr. [greek: gnosis], knowledge), the name generally applied to that spiritual movement existing side by side with genuine christianity, as it gradually crystallized into the old catholic church, which may roughly be defined as a distinct religious syncretism bearing the strong impress of christian influences. i. the term "gnosis" first appears in a technical sense in 1 tim. vi. 20 ([greek: he pseudonymos gnosis]). it seems to have at first been applied exclusively, or at any rate principally, to a particular tendency within the movement as a whole, i.e. to those sections of (the syrian) gnostics otherwise generally known as ophites or naasseni (see hippolytus, _philosophumena_, v. 2: [greek: naassenoi ... hoi heautous gnostikous apokalountes]; irenaeus i. 11. 1; epiphanius, _haeres._ xxvi. cf. also the self-assumed name of the carpocratiani, iren. i. 25. 6). but in irenaeus the term has already come to designate the whole movement. this first came into prominence in the opening decades of the 2nd century