# clock hands



## ahmedcowon

How do you say "Clock* Hands*" (hour hand - minute hand - seconds hand) in your language?

In Arabic: عقارب الساعة /*'aqaareb* as-saa'a/ (Clock *Scorpions*)


Thanks!


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## AutumnOwl

_*Swedish:* 
Visare_ - showers, from to show


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## bibax

Czech:

*ručička* (pl. ručičky) = the 2nd dim. of ruka (= hand), "little hand";
*ručka* (pl. ručky, rarely used) = the 1st dim. of ruka;

hodinová ručička (hodina = _hora_), also malá ručička (small _"little hand"_);
minutová ručička (minuta = _pars minuta_), also velká ručička (big _"little hand"_);
vteřinová ručička (vteřina = _pars minuta secunda_);


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## apmoy70

In Greek:

*«Μεγάλος δείκτης» [me'ɣalos 'ðiktis]* --> _big indicator_ (longer minute hand)
*«Μικρός δείκτης» [mi'kros 'ðiktis]* --> _small indicator_ (shorter hour hand)
*«Δείκτης δευτερολέπτων» ['ðiktis ðeftero'lepton]* --> _indicator of seconds_ (seconds hand)


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## Encolpius

In Hungarian 

*óramutató *[óra clock, hour, mutat to show mutató shower]


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## bibax

> óramutató [óra clock, hour, mutat to show mutató shower]


So the Hungarian watches have showers. It must be something very special. 

In Czech an extra special thing is humorously called by the term _"watch with a fountain"_.


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## Encolpius

AutumnOwl said:


> _*Swedish:*
> Visare_ - showers, from to show





bibax said:


> So the Hungarian watches have showers. It must be something very special.
> 
> In Czech an extra special thing is humorously called by the term _"watch with a fountain"_.



Nothing especial, it exists in Swedish or German, too.  Blame AutumnOwl. 
shower [-au-], shower [-ou-]


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## Grefsen

AutumnOwl said:


> _*Swedish:*
> Visare_ - showers, from to show


*Norwegian:*

viser (clock hand)

timeviser (hour hand)

minuttviser (minute hand)

sekundviser (second hand)


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## Saluton

Russian:
*clock hand* - *стрелка часов* ('strelka cha'sof) or simply *стрелка* ('strelka), literally '(little) arrow (of the clock)'
hour hand - часовая стрелка (chaso'vaya 'strelka)
minute hand - минутная стрелка (mi'nutnaya 'strelka)
second hand - секундная стрелка (se'kundnaya 'strelka)



ahmedcowon said:


> In Arabic: عقارب الساعة /*'aqaareb* as-saa'a/ (Clock *Scorpions*)


Scorpions? Interesting. Is it because the tip of the hand looks like a sting?


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## Selyd

*Ukrainian
**Clock hand* = *годинникова стрілка*
*hour hand = годинна стрілка
large hand = хвилинна стрілка
minute hand = хвилинна стрілка
second hand = секундна стрілка
small hand = годинна стрілка *


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## Rallino

In Turkish,

The hour hand is _*akrep *_(scorpion), just like in Arabic, but in singular.
The minute hand is _*yelkovan*_, literally: windchaser.


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## DenisBiH

Encolpius said:


> Nothing especial, it exists in Swedish or German, too.  Blame AutumnOwl.
> shower [-au-], shower [-ou-]



+Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian _kazaljke (na satu)_. Note that _kazati _usually means "to tell; to say", but _pokazati _means "to show".


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## ThomasK

As in Swedish/ Norwegian: *'wijzers'*, pointers literally...


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## arielipi

Hebrew:
מחוג makhog is the hand
שעות sha'ot hours
דקות dakot minutes
שניות shniyot seconds

then its simply makhog haX (ha = al) - (clock) hand (of) the X


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## mataripis

In my awareness in Tagalog words, Second is Saglit/ Minute is Sandali/ and Hour is Oras.  The word for hand in this case is "hintuturo'. 1.) Hintuturo pang saglit   2.) Hintuturo pang sandali  and 3.) Hintuturo pang oras.


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## ThomasK

But what is 'hintuturo'? Or what is the root? And the word 'pang' ?


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## aruniyan

in Tamil, _siriya mul_ and _periya mul_ - Small prickle/thorn and Big prickle/thorn,

_*mul *_is used commonly for Thorns, fish bones and anything sharp pointed.


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## trigel

Korean:
시계바늘 (lit. clock needle)
then the hour, minute, and second hands are hour, minute and second needles (in Sino-Korean): 시침(時針), 분침(分針), 초침(秒針).


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## ThomasK

It is so interesting to see how an object leads to ('inspires') all kinds of names: either by its shape, or by its use...


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## Outsider

In Portuguese they're also called pointers, _ponteiros_.


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## mataripis

ThomasK said:


> But what is 'hintuturo'? Or what is the root? And the word 'pang' ?


This term is not  commonly used because it is from rural areas. Hintuturo is another word for Finger pointing to someone.The word "turo" the possible root word means " to pin point". the "pang" in a Tagalog word is equivalent "for" in English.  example; Pang Tao= For human .So pang sandali is "for minute" in English.But there is another meaning for "Turo' " as i watch and listen to one of the lesson in Jew prayers, the one who speak pronounced "torah" as Torowh(toroeh) and this provide me the idea that the Tagalog "turo'" ( teaching/ to point out) was coined exactly from the word "Torah" of Aramaic hebrew!


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## hyunsuh

Malay:

clock hands = jarum jam


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## DearPrudence

In *French*:
"*les aiguilles*" (literally: _needles_)

*the hour hand: **l'aiguille des heures /*more colloquially: *la petite aiguille* (literally: _the__ small/short __needle_)
*the minute hand: **l'aiguille des minutes / *more colloquially:* la grande aiguille* (literally: _the __big/tall __needle_)
*the seconds hand: **(l'aiguille des secondes /) la trotteuse* (literally: _the thing that trots_)


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## ThomasK

Quite clear. Thanks a lot !


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## OneStroke

Chinese: 時針 (TC)/时针 (SC) shízhēn (time needles)


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## HYCHIN

CHINESE

Clock hands 指針/指針 (pointing needle)
Hour hand 時針/时针 (hour needle)
Minute hand 分針/分针 (minute needle)
Seconds hand 秒針/秒针 (second needle)

Note: (1) no need to distinguish between singular and plural (2) 时 means _hour_ or _time_​.


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## OneStroke

True, I was wrong there.  Thanks for the correction.


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## sakvaka

AutumnOwl said:


> _*Swedish:*
> Visare_ - showers, from to show


*Finnish: *_viisari

tuntiviisari
minuuttiviisari
sekuntiviisari
_


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## Nizo

In *Esperanto*:  _montriloj_ (show-ers) from the verb _montri_ (to show) and the suffix _-ilo_ (which denotes a tool).  Minutes are shown by the _granda montrilo_ or _minuta montilo_, while hours are shown by the _malgranda montrilo_ or _hora montrilo_​.


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## francisgranada

bibax said:


> ...In Czech an extra special thing is humorously called by the term _"watch with a fountain"_.


In Hungarian "toronyóra lánccal" (tower clock with chain) .


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## apmoy70

apmoy70 said:


> In Greek:
> 
> *«Μεγάλος δείκτης» [me'ɣalos 'ðiktis]* --> _big indicator_ (longer minute hand)
> *«Μικρός δείκτης» [mi'kros 'ðiktis]* --> _small indicator_ (shorter hour hand)
> *«Δείκτης δευτερολέπτων» ['ðiktis ðeftero'lepton]* --> _indicator of seconds_ (seconds hand)


I apologize for quoting myself, but I forgot in my previous post to add the names in the vernacular:


*«Λεπτοδείκτης»* [lepto'ðiktis] (masc) --> _minute-indicator_ (longer minute hand)
*«Ωροδείκτης»* [oro'ðiktis] (masc) --> _hour-indicator_ (shorter hour hand)
*«Δευτεροδείκτης»* [ðeftero'ðiktis] (masc) --> _second-indicator_ (seconds hand)


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## er targyn

In Kazakh it's til "tongue".


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## SuperXW

ahmedcowon said:


> In Arabic: عقارب الساعة /*'aqaareb* as-saa'a/ (Clock *Scorpions*)





er targyn said:


> In Kazakh it's til "tongue".


Scorpions and tongue? That's very imaginative. 

In Chinese,
Clock hands in general: 指针 (point needle)
Hour hand / minute hand / second hand: 时针 (hour needle) / 分针 (minute needle) / 秒针 (second needle)


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## 810senior

trigel said:


> Korean:
> 시계바늘 (lit. clock needle)
> then the hour, minute, and second hands are hour, minute and second needles (in Sino-Korean): 시침(時針), 분침(分針), 초침(秒針).



That's the case for Japanese.

clock hand：時計の針(tokei no hari): lit. clock's needle
a hour, minute, second hand: 時針jishin, 分針funshin, 秒針byoushin


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## bearded

In Italian:
lancette (dell'orologio) = hands (of the clock)
'lancetta' is originally a diminutive of 'lancia' = lance
lancetta delle ore = hour hand
lancetta dei minuti = minute hand
lancetta dei secondi= seconds hand.


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## marco_2

In Polish: *duża / minutowa wskazówka *(big / minute hand), *mała / godzinna wskazówka *(small / minute hand) and *wskazówka sekundowa *(seconds hand). The verb *wskazywać *means: _to point_, so _wskazówka _literally means: _a pointer_. BWT, _wskazówka _also means: _a tip; a piece of instructions /directions_.


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## wizardofword

Hello,

I recently try to understand the metaphor in the Turkish version of clock hands. Almost in all languages the metaphor from a body a part (hand or finger as they point out sth) used. In some others, there is no metaphor and pointer, signifier etc. used denotatively. But in Arabic, Persian and Turkish the metaphor is deeper. With some variant phonemes “akrep” means scorpion(poisonous insect) inall three languages and it is derived from Arabic to the other two. In arabic the hands called “akareb”(pl. scrorpionS) and I do not if they specify the minute and the hour. In Persian they are called Aghrabe-i kuchak and Aghrabe-i bozorg. Although I don’t know what kuchak and bozorg mean, most probably they refer either the length of the hands or min/hour. And in Turkish only the hour leg is called “akrep” and the minute one is tıtally different. It is called “yelkovan” what literally means "vane/weathercock". In this sense, I have thought that since the rotation of the hour hand cannot be momentarily observed, it is identified with a scorpio, which is often stay still and decive people as if it is dead, and because of the relatively fast rotation of the minute hand is associated with a vane. On the other hand, I think "akrep" as the name of the hour hand is derived from Arabic as well as the akrep as the scorpion. And an Arab friend of mine, a linguist, told me that there is no link between the stillness of the scorpion and the hour hand. He said there are two theory. One is the hands of the clock, as they keep moving, in other words by the time passing, they leave a feeling of a scorpion sting in people and the other is they might have called liked that because of the similiarity between the old clock hands and scorpion in shape.


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## Penyafort

In *Catalan*, three words are used:

*busca *
(*busques del rellotge*)

The origin of it is uncertain but likely Germanic, probably coming from the same West Germanic root as English bush or the Romance language word for wood/forest (bosc, bois, bosque, bosco...). The other meanings of busca in Catalan are scrap, little piece, or also a stick or rod to point to a blackboard, etc. The latter, being a pointer, could explain the meaning of its use for the clock hands.

*maneta*
(*manetes del rellotge*)

It means 'little hand'. So similar to the English use.

*agulla*
(*agulles del rellotge*)

As it was mentioned before for French, it means 'needle'. The analogy is also clear.

--

In *Spanish*, the two latter words mentioned for Catalan, 'little hands' and 'needles', are also used:

*manecilla *
(*manecillas del reloj*)

*aguja *
(*agujas del reloj*)

Then there is also one of the words in Spanish for "arrows":

*saeta*
(*saetas del reloj*)


Both in Catalan and Spanish there are words to specifically indicate the hand pointing at the minutes or the one pointing at the seconds.

Catalan: 
*minutera*
*secundària*

Spanish:
*minutero*
*segundero*


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## Gavril

sakvaka said:


> *Finnish: *_viisari
> 
> tuntiviisari
> minuuttiviisari
> sekuntiviisari_



Also _osoitin _("pointer"), according to my dictionary.


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## bibax

bibax said:


> hodinová ručička (hodina = _hora_), also malá ručička (small _"little hand"_);
> minutová ručička (minuta = _pars minuta_), also velká ručička (big _"little hand"_);
> vteřinová ručička (vteřina = _pars minuta secunda_);





Penyafort said:


> Both in Catalan and Spanish there are words to specifically indicate the hand pointing at the minutes or the one pointing at the seconds.


In Czech (and other Slavic languages) the long expressions (adj+noun) can be abbreviated (common in colloquial Czech). The noun is dropped and the adjective is substantivized with a suffix, e.g. vodové barvy (water colours) > vodovky.

*hodinovka* = hodinová ručička;
*minutovka* = minutová ručička;
*vteřinovka* = vteřinová ručička;

However *hodinovka* can means (colloquially) also _hodinový běh_ = one hour run, and possibly other things. Similarly _minutovka_ and _vteřinovka_ may not be unambiguous.

But this phenomenon is not specific for the clock hands, of course.


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## franknagy

Encolpius said:


> Nothing especial, it exists in Swedish or German, too.  Blame AutumnOwl.
> shower [-au-], shower [-ou-]


_Mutató_ can be translated as _pointer_, too.
The joke corresponding to it: dogs are sitting on Hungarian clocks.


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