Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A constellation in the Southern Hemisphere near Hydrus, Eridanus, and Reticulum.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A clock.
  • noun Same as horology, 2.
  • noun [capitalized] A southern constellation of twelve stars, inserted by Lacaille east of Eridanus. Its brightest star is of the fourth magnitude.
  • noun In botany, a table of the hours at which the flowers of certain plants open and close in a given locality.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun astronomy A constellation of the southern sky, said to resemble a pendulum clock. It lies between the constellations Fornax and Dorado.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin hōrologium, horologe; see horologe.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Named by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1763. Originally called Hōrologium Oscillitorium (Latin for "pendulum clock") to honor the Dutch astronomer and mathematician Christian Huygens, inventor of the pendulum clock.

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