Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a borough in SE London, England: located on the prime meridian from which geographic longitude is measured; formerly the site of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
- a town in SW Connecticut.
- Informal. Greenwich Time.
noun
- a Greater London borough on the Thames: site of a Royal Naval College (now used as the National Maritime Museum), including Inigo Jones’ Queen’s House (1617), and of the original Royal Observatory designed by Christopher Wren (1675), accepted internationally as the prime meridian of longitude since 1884, and the basis of Greenwich Mean Time; also site of the Millennium Dome. Pop: 223 700 (2003 est). Area: 46 sq km (18 sq miles)
town on the south bank of the Thames adjoining London, Old English Grenewic (964), literally “Green Harbor.” The Royal Observatory there founded June 22, 1675, by King Charles II specifically to solve the problem of finding longitude while at sea.
In October 1884, at the behest of the President of the U.S.A., 41 delegates from 25 nations met in Washington, D.C., for the International Meridian Conference. They decided to adopt a single world meridian, passing through the principal Transit Instrument at the observatory at Greenwich, as the basis of calculation for all longitude and a worldwide 24-hour clock. The Greenwich motion passed 22-1; San Domingo voted against it; France and Brazil abstained. Greenwich Village quarter of New York City has been symbolic of “American bohemia” at least since 1903.