epicycle
See also: épicycle
English
Etymology
From Latin epicyclus, from Ancient Greek ἐπίκυκλος (epíkuklos), from ἐπί (epí, “upon”) + κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈɛpɪsaɪkəl/
Noun
epicycle (plural epicycles)
- (astronomy) A small circle whose centre is on the circumference of a larger circle; in Ptolemaic astronomy it was seen as the basis of revolution of the "seven planets", given a fixed central Earth.
- 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, […], printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.155:
- Is it not [Philosophie], that […] teacheth miserie, famine and sicknesse to laugh? Not by reason of some imaginarie Epicicles, but by naturall and palpable reasons.
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- (mathematics) Any circle whose circumference rolls around that of another circle, thus creating a hypocycloid or epicycloid.
Derived terms
Translations
a small circle whose centre is on the circumference of a larger circle
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any circle whose circumference rolls around that of another circle
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
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