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longitudes

[lon-ji-tood, -tyood]

Origin

noun

Geography. angular distance east or west on the earth's surface, measured by the angle contained between the meridian of a particular place and some prime meridian, as that of Greenwich, England, and expressed either in degrees or by some corresponding difference in time.

Astronomy.

celestial longitude.

galactic longitude.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin longitūdō length. See longi-, -tude

Can be confused: latitude, longitude.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Longitudes is always a great word to know.

So is interrobang. Does it mean:

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

longitude

late 14c., from L. longitudo "length," from longus "long" (adj.) (see long (adj.)). For origins, see latitude. Related: Longitudinal.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Science Dictionary

longitude

(lŏn'jĭ-t

d') Pronunciation Key

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A measure of relative position east or west on the Earth's surface, given in degrees from a certain meridian, usually the prime meridian at Greenwich, England, which has a longitude of 0°. The distance of a degree of longitude is about 69 statute miles or 60 nautical miles (111 km) at the equator, decreasing to zero at the poles. Longitude and latitude are the coordinates used to identify any point on the Earth's surface. Compare latitude.
Celestial longitude.

American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

longitude [(lon-juh-toohd)]

A measurement, in degrees, of a place's distance east or west of the prime meridian, which runs through Greenwich, England. (Compare latitude.)

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Matching Quote

"MY DEAR FRIEND,—I believe a good many conversations with you were left in an unfinished state, and now indeed I don't know where to take them up. But I will resume some of the unfinished silence. I shall not hesitate to know you. I think of you as some elder sister of mine, whom I could not have avoided,—a sort of lunar influence,—only of such age as the moon, whose time is measured by her light. You must know that you represent to me woman, for I have not traveled very far or wide,—and what if I had?... You have helped to keep my life "on loft," as Chaucer says of Griselda, and in a better sense. You always seemed to look down on me as from some elevation,—some of your high humilities,—and I was the better for having to look up. I felt taxed not to disappoint your expectation; for could there be any accident so sad as to be respected for something better than we are? It was a pleasure even to go away from you, as it is not to meet some, as it apprised me of my high relations; and such a departure is a sort of further introduction and meeting. Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes."

-Henry David Thoreau

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longitudes

lon·gi·tude