nadir

See also: Nadir

English

WOTD – 23 September 2006

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Medieval Latin nadir, from Arabic نَظِيرُ السَّمْت (naẓīru as-samt), composed of السَمْتُ (as-samt, “the zenith”) and نَظِير (naẓīr, “counterpart, corresponding to”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈneɪdɪə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈneɪdɪɹ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

nadir (plural nadirs)

1. The point of the celestial sphere, directly opposite the zenith; inferior pole of the horizon; point of the celestial sphere directly under the place where we stand.
   • 1638, Sir Thomas Herbert, Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique:

     […] when we are Nadyr to the Sunne, we have no ſhadow […]

2. (figuratively) The lowest point; time of greatest depression.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Henry Hallam:

     The seventh century is the nadir of the human mind in Europe.

   • 1950, Elizabeth Janeway, in Helen Hull (editor), The Writer’s Book:

     In this nadir of poetic repute, when the only verse that most people read from one year’s end to the next is what appears on greetings cards, it is well for us to stop and consider our poets.

3. (astronomy) The axis of a projected conical shadow; the direction of the force of gravity at a location; down.

   The nadir of the sun is the axis of the shadow projected by the Earth.

4. (beekeeping, archaic) An empty box added beneath a full one in a beehive to give the colony more room to expand or store honey.

References

• 1860, Henry Taylor, The Beekeepers Manual, page 24.

Synonyms

• (lowest point): lowest ebb, slough of despond, trough

Antonyms

• (point of heavens opposite the zenith): zenith
• (lowest point): height, peak
• (beekeeping): duplet, super

Related terms

• azimuth, zenith - (both from السَمْتُ (as-samt)).

Translations

point of the sky

• Armenian: նադիր (nadir)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 天底 (zh) (tiāndǐ)

• Dutch: nadir (nl) n
• Finnish: nadiiri (fi)
• French: nadir (fr) m
• German: Nadir (de) m

• Italian: nadir m
• Japanese: 天底 (てんてい, tentei)
• Malay: nadir
• Polish: nadir (pl) m
• Portuguese: nadir (pt) m
• Russian: надир (ru) m (nadír)
• Spanish: nadir m

figuratively the lowest point

• Finnish: aallonpohja (fi)
• Hungarian: mélypont (hu)
• Japanese: どん底 (どんぞこ, donzoko)

• Portuguese: nadir (pt) m
• Russian: низший уровень m (nízšij úroven')
• Swedish: lågvattenmärke (sv) (slightly informal)

axis of projected conical shadow

Verb

nadir (third-person singular simple present nadirs, present participle nadiring, simple past and past participle nadired)

1. (transitive, beekeeping) To extend (a beehive) by adding an empty box at the base.

Anagrams

• Darin, dinar, drain, Drina, Indra, Ndari, ranid

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French

Wikipedia ^fr

Etymology

As for the English word.

Noun

nadir m (plural nadirs)

1. (astronomy) nadir

Antonyms

• zénith

Anagrams

• radin

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Italian

Etymology

As for the English word.

Pronunciation

nadìr, /naˈdir/, /na"dir/

Noun

nadir m

1. (astronomy) nadir

Antonyms

• zenit

Anagrams

• nardi

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Turkish

Etymology

From Arabic.

Adjective

nadir (comparative daha nadir, superlative en nadir)

1. rare

Synonyms

• ender