hourglass

English

a 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: beach ball (Apple)

   • 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 — see also water clock,‎ clepsydra

• Arabic: سَاعَةٌ رَمْلِيَّة f (sāʕatun ramliyya)
• Armenian: ավազի ժամացույց (avazi žamacʻuycʻ)
• Asturian: reló d'arena m
• Azerbaijani: qum saatı
• Belarusian: пясо́чны гадзі́ннік m (pjasóčny hadzínnik), пясо́чны гадзі́ньнік m (pjasóčny hadzínʹnik)
• Breton: eurier-traezh m
• Bulgarian: пя́съчен часо́вник m (pjásăčen 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: שְׁעוֹן חוֹל (he) m (sha'ón khol)
• 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) (literally “sand clock”)
• Italian: clessidra (it) f
• Japanese: 砂時計 (ja) (すなどけい, sunadokei), 砂漏 (さろう, sarō)
• Kazakh: құм сағат (qum 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
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: элсэн цаг (elsen cag)

• Norman: hôlouoge à sablion f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: timeglass n

  Nynorsk: timeglas n

• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: ساعَتِ شِنی (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), скля́нки f pl (skljánki) (nautical, historical)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пешча̀нӣк m, пјешча̀нӣк m, пешчани сат m, пјешчани сат m, пешчани часовник m, пјешчани часовник m

  Latin: 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​/​arenáceo​/​arenisco m
• Swahili: shisha
• Swedish: timglas (sv) n
• Tajik: соати регӣ (soat-i regi)
• Thai: นาฬิกาทราย (th) (naa-lí-gaa-saai)
• Turkish: kum saati (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: قوم ساعتی (kum saʾatı)

• Turkmen: qum sagat
• Ukrainian: піскови́й годи́нник m (piskovýj hodýnnyk)
• Urdu: ریت گَھڑی 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. (computing, intransitive) To display the cursor as an hourglass indicating that the computer is busy or processing.
   • 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