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Frank,

I hope you feel I said the same thing in my final reply to George.

Fred

On Jul 25, 2007, at 2:43 AM, Frank Reed wrote:

>
> Fred you wrote:
>> Another meaning for zenith given by the Oxford English Dictionary
>> (http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/zenith?view=uk) is "the highest
>> point in the sky reached by a given celestial object."  This is an
>> additional meaning to the point directly overhead.  However, both the
>> Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica mention only the point directly
>> overhead.  It would appear the scientific usage is restricted to the
>> point directly overhead.
>
> Just remember that the OED also includes 'incorrect' usages since, by
> their standards, usage is king, and therefore there's almost no such
> thing as incorrect usage (apart from pure typographic errors). So, for
> example, "irregardless" is in the OED despite the fact that no one
> with any pride in their usage of English would be caught dead using
> it. For scientific terminology, there's clearly correct usage and
> incorrect usage. For the modern scientific use of the word, zenith,
> it's the point straight up, the single point 90 degrees away from the
> astronomical horizon. And by the way, that's the only way it's defined
> in the back of the modern Bowditch. Of course, "zenith" also has a
> metaphoric meaning in non-scientific usage: something is "at its
> zenith" when it has peaked in some sense, so you might read about the
> "Roman Empire at its zenith" or perhaps an "actor's career at its
> zenith". When that metaphoric usage is turned back and applied to the
> original astronomical case, then we see this odd idea of the "Sun at
> its zenith" when trying to say that it has reached its maximum
> altitude. No one trying to communicate navigational or astronomical
> concepts should use zenith that way. The zenith is straight up. That's
> all.
>
> -FER
>
>
> >



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