LON'GITUDE, noun [Latin longitudo, from longus, long.] 1. Properly length; as the longitude of a room; but in this sense not now used. Appropriately, in geography, 2. The distance of any place on the globe from another place, eastward or westward; or the distance of any place from a given meridian. Boston, in Massachusetts, is situated in the 71st degree of longitude west from Greenwich. To be able to ascertain precisely the longitude of a ship at sea, is a great desideratum in navigation. 3. The longitude of a star, is its distance from the equinoctial points, or the beginning of Aries or Libra.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI