thermometer

What it means

1. An apparatus used to measure temperature.

   Towards the following morning, the thermometer fell to 5°; and at daylight, there was not an atom of water to be seen in any direction.

   1835, John Ross, James Clark Ross, Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-west Passage …, Volume 1, pages 284–5

   4 more examples

   On the wall were hanging thermometers, barometers, and hydrometers, and every other sort of ometer, numberless, dusty, and mysterious; […]

   1843, John Holmes Agnew, Eclectic Museum of Foreign Literature, Science and Art

   Elsewhere, professionals could enthuse over new precision instruments capable, for instance, of measuring weights down to a tenth of a milligram, or over a host of self-registering thermometers and barometers, microscopes, typewriters, calculators and all sorts of technical and musical devices, including automatic concertinas, edeophones, auto-harps, bigophones and other long-forgotten objects.

   1978, Jan Romein, The Watershed of Two Eras: Europe in 1900, page 303

   The brothers had thrust the thermometer between two circuit boards in order to look for hot spots inside m zero. The thermometer’s dial was marked “Beef Rare—Ham—Beef Med—Pork.” “You want to keep the machine below ‘Pork,’” Gregory remarked.

   1992 March 2, Richard Preston, “The Mountains of Pi”, in The New Yorker, archived from the original on 23 Mar 2020

   There are, of course, smart speakers (which roughly a quarter of American homes have) and smart thermostats, as well as smart thermometers, smart mattress covers, smart coffee makers, smart doorbells, and even, yes, smart toasters.

   2018 December 18, Joe Pinsker, “The Coming Commodification of Life at Home”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 25 Jan 2019

In a sentence

Towards the following morning, the thermometer fell to 5°; and at daylight, there was not an atom of water to be seen in any direction.

1835, John Ross, James Clark Ross, Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-west Passage …, Volume 1, pages 284–5

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*gʷʰer-
2. Proto-Indo-European*gʷʰermos
3. Proto-Hellenic*kʷʰermós
4. Ancient Greekθερμός (thermós)
5. Frenchthermo-
6. Proto-Indo-European*med-
7. Proto-Indo-European*meh₁-
8. Ancient Greekμέτρον (métron)
9. Frenchthermomètre
10. Englishthermometer

Borrowed from French thermomètre; equivalent to thermo- + -meter.