Check out 7 time units that have been used throughout history

Just a moment, in a moment, in the blink of an eye, already, a moment, a while ago . All of these expressions serve to convey the idea of ​​time, although their interpretation is beyond subjective and there is nothing more accurate than using units such as hours, minutes and seconds.

However, according to a fascinating article by Paul Anthony Jones for the mental_floss site, some of these expressions have already come to have very precise meanings - such as "just a moment, " for example.

As he explained, this phrase used to be used in the Middle Ages and referred to exactly 90 seconds or the same as 1/40 hour, 1/10 point (where "dot" meant 15 minutes) or, briefly, one and a half minutes. . Curious, isn't it? So check out other interesting time units you might not know about:

1 - Point

Well, as we just mentioned above, the "Point" - also called Punct or Prick - was used during the Middle Ages to mean exactly a quarter of an hour.

2 - Ghurry

During the Middle Ages, in the absence of super-accurate watches such as these, people used all sorts of gadgets to mark the passage of time. According to Paul, the Indians invented a water clock called "Ghurry", which consisted of a metal or wooden canister with several perforations that was placed inside a basin of water.

As the water passed through the holes in the bowl, this object sank gradually until it reached the bottom of the basin. This process used to take place over a 24-minute interval, and people came to consider that an entire day consisted of 60 ghurries .

3 - Atom

As you know, the word "atom" - derived from the Greek atoms or "indivisible" - is used in chemistry to describe a basic unit of matter composed of a positively charged nucleus surrounded by negatively charged electrons. So, basically, an "atom" is a tiny thing, isn't it?

For this word was formerly used in England to determine the least amount of time that could be measured. At the time, each minute was considered to have 376 atoms, meaning that each atom was equivalent to 0.15957 seconds, or 1/6 of a second.

4 - Chandelier

No, we are not referring to wild lamps, but a unit of time used by the ancient Romans that was equivalent to five days. Its origin comes from the lustrum, that is, a period of five years at the end of which the Roman authorities carry out a population census.

After the countdown was completed, a huge celebration took place on the streets of Rome, and it was completed with a purification sacrifice called lustratio performed to “wash the soul” of all the members of the empire.

5 - Nycthemeron

The word above - derived from the Greek words "nyks" and "hemera", meaning "night" and "day" respectively - was used to describe a period of 24 consecutive hours. So nycthemeron is just a more exquisite way of talking about something that lasted a whole day.

6 - Mileway

The word "mileway" is formed by the mile and way fragments which, in English, means - in free translation - mile and way, respectively. And while we may have the impression that this word refers to a specific distance, in the Middle Ages it was used to describe a period of about 20 minutes, that is, the time needed to walk a mile.

7 - Quadrant

While the "Point" - which we described in the first item on this list - was used to describe quarter-hour periods, the "Quadrant" represented a quarter of a day, that is, a period of exactly six hours.

* Posted on 11/18/2014