pl. ephemerides, formerly often used as a sing. [mod.L. ephēmeris, a. Gr. ἐφημερίς diary, calendar, f. ἐφήμερος daily: see EPHEMERA.]
† 1. A record of daily occurrences; a diary, journal. Obs.
1591. Lambarde, Archeion (1635), 168. The Bookes of Entries kept there, which is a true Ephemeris or Iournall of the Acts of the Court.
1629. Donne, Serm., xxiv. (1640), 240. God sees the sins of the Elect, and sees their sins to be sins; and in his Ephemerides, his journals, he writes them downe.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor. (1716), 22. Register not only strange but merciful occurrences: Let Ephemerides not Olympiads give thee account of his mercies.
† b. pl. for sing.
1613. Jackson, Creed, I. xvii. Wks. I. 119. His written oracles … an absolute ephemerides of all things that had been since the first moment of time.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. iv. 371. Having kept an exact Ephemerides of all actions for more then five thousand years together.
1650. R. Stapylton, Strada’s Low-C. Warres, X. 16. Set downe in a Diary (or Ephemerides).
2. A table showing the predicted (rarely the observed) positions of a heavenly body for every day during a given period. † Also, in pl. the tabulated positions (of a heavenly body) for a series of successive days.
1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 283. Many eclipses of the sonne and moone also are not noted in the common Ephemerides and Almanachs.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 188. Among the Babylonians there were found Ephemerides containing the obseruation of the stars, for 720 yeares.
1664. Phil. Trans., I. 3. The Ephemerides of the Comet. Ibid. (1668), III. 688. Tables of the Motion of the Satellits of Jupiter, with an Ephemeris of the same for this present Year.
1854. Moseley, Astron., lxxxviii. (ed. 4), 232. The Nautical Almanac for 1835 contained ephemerides of two of them.
1880. Academy, No. 440. 262. The following ephemeris … will be serviceable in searching for the comet.
† b. pl. As the title of a collection of such tables. Often used as sing. = 3. Obs.
1559. Cuninghame, Cosm. Glas, 95. I find in an Ephemerides the sonne to be in the firste Digree of Aries.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., I. xxviii. (ed. 7), 77. An example used by Stadius in the 115 Page of his Ephemerides.
1618. Wither, Juvenil. Motto (1633), 543. Be slaves unto an Ephemerides.
1635. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., I. xi. 241. You may [know] by an Ephemerides, at what houre an Eclipse shall happen at some knowne place.
fig. 1686. W. de Britaine, Hum. Prud., § 21. 99. You must be careful to keep an Ephemerides, to know how the great Orbs of the Court move.
3. A book in which the places of the heavenly bodies and other astronomical matters are tabulated in advance for each day of a certain period; an astronomical almanac.
1647. Almanak for 1386, Astron. App. (1812), 61. An ephemeris is a book giving the true places of the planets.
1796. Hutton, Math. Dict., s.v., The Nautical Almanac, or Astronomical Ephemeris, published in England by the Board of Longitude … which commenced with the year 1767.
1833. Sir J. Herschel, Astron., v. 204. The equation of time is calculated and inserted in ephemerides for every day of the year.
1854. Moseley, Astron., xlv. (ed. 4), 147. These quantities … are stated … in the tables of the Nautical Almanac, and other ephemerides.
† 4. In wider sense: An almanac or calendar of any kind; in early use esp. one containing astrological or meteorological predictions for each day of the period embraced; also, a calendar of saints’ days. Also pl. in same sense, sometimes used as sing. Obs.
In bibliographical works (e.g., in the Brit. Mus. Cat.), ‘Ephemerides’ is still used as a general heading for Almanacs, Calendars, etc.
1597. Bp. Hall, Sat., II. vii. 6 (1602), 39.
| Why can his tell-troth Ephemerides | |
| Teach him the weathers state so long beforne…? |
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. i. § 3. B. That Kalender or Ephemerides, which he maketh of the diuersities of times and seasons for all actions and purposes.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., IV. vi. (1612), K 3 b. Cures Plague, Piles, and Poxe, by the Ephemerides.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Flintshire, IV. 39. He … wrote an Ephemeris of the Irish Saints.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 45. Several Ephemerides or Almanacks are annually published.
fig. 1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. IV., ccclii. Hee who had read the Ephemerides Of Fate; and could repeat his owne, by roat.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, Wks. (1812), IX. 105. I think this can hardly have escaped the writers of political ephemerides for any month or year.
† b. pl. The appointed daily order of religious services. Obs.
1650. Elderfield, Tythes, 117. How their ephemerides for divine services should be performed.
¶ 5. catachr. = EPHEMERA2 1 and 2.
1820. Shelley, Sensit. Pl., 49. The beamlike ephemeris Whose path is the lightning’s.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Self-reliance, Wks. (Bohn), I. 25. Honour is venerable to us because it is no ephemeris.
