groma

[ groh-muh ]

noun

1. an instrument having a cruciform wooden frame with a plumb line at the end of each arm, used for laying out lines at right angles to existing lines.

Word History and Origins

Origin of groma¹

< Latin grōma, grūma, by dissimilation < Greek gnôma, presumably with sense of gnṓmōn carpenter's square; gnomon

Example Sentences

At the Miami Book Fair earlier this month, Richard Polt arrived equipped with both a PowerPoint presentation and a Groma Kolibri, his vintage “laptop typewriter” made in East Germany in 1956.

From The Guardian

The name is locally explained as recording a victorious assault on the defences by one Robert Graham and his men; it has also been connected with the Grampian Hills and the Latin surveying term groma.

From Project Gutenberg

Statera, the balance, the Greek στατήρ; machina, an engine, μηχανή; númus, a silver coin, νόμος, the Sicilian νοῦμμος; groma, measuring-rod, the Greek γνώμων or γνῶμα: clathri, a trellis, a grate, the Greek κλῆθρα, the native Italian word for lock being claustra.73.Gubernare, to steer, from κυβεονᾶν; anchora, anchor, from ἀγκῦρα; prora, the forepart, from πρῶρα.

From Project Gutenberg

Scholars have talked, indeed, of a Greek origin or of an Etruscan origin, and the technical term for the Roman surveying instrument, groma, has been explained as the Greek word 'gnomon', borrowed through an Etruscan medium.

From Project Gutenberg