Horologium

From Slackerpedia Galactica

In 1643, Johan Hevelius was evicted from his rude lodgings by his landlady, Madame Katrina Katrinasdotter Katrina, an evil-smelling wench with a more evil temper. She tired of Hevelius awakening her at all hours of the night with his heavy clump-clump-clumping up three flights of creaky wooden stairs, dragging his astrolabe behind him. So, one fine day the crone threw out all of poor Johan's property into the muddy Gdansk street. In revenge, Hevelius sent a "coded message" to all his fellow astronomers: in the tradition of the time -- and to stave off a slander lawsuit -- he cast his message in an obscure fashion that would be understood only by the (three) people in Poland who wrote good Latin.

"Horologium", then, meant, "Avoid that HORRIBLE lodging!"