hourglass

English

Wooden hourglass

Etymology

From hour +‎ glass.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈaʊəɡlɑːs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (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

   Meronym: pinch

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

Translations

clock

• Arabic: سَاعَة رَمْلِيَّة f (sāʕa ramliyya)
• Armenian: ավազի ժամացույց (avazi žamacʻuycʻ)
• 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)

  Hokkien: 沙漏 (soa-lāu)

  Mandarin: 沙漏 (zh) (shālòu), 沙鐘 / 沙钟 (shāzhōng), 沙壺 / 沙壶 (shāhú)

• 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)
• Hebrew: שעון חול (he) m (šʕon ħol)
• 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 (ja) (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

• Ottoman Turkish: قوم ساعتی (kum saʾatı)
• 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, reloj arenoso m, reloj arenáceo m
• Swahili: shisha
• Swedish: timglas (sv) n
• Tajik: соати регӣ (soat-i regi)
• 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

Verb

hourglass (third-person singular simple present hourglasses, present participle hourglassing, simple past and past participle hourglassed)

1. To display the cursor as an hourglass to indicate that the computer is busy.
   • 2006 May 5, Drew, “Timeout Expired but worked 3 months ago”, in microsoft.public.access.adp.sqlserver‎^[1] (Usenet):

     I have an ADP that I use for reporting that I have used for about a year. I only use it every 3 months, and it has worked up until now. This morning I tried using it, but after trying to open the report, it hourglassed and then showed a "Timeout expired" error. I searched this message and found out how to set the timeout limit, and set it to 300 seconds. Still the same message.

Further reading

• hourglass on Wikipedia.Wikipedia