Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Epicycle
1.
(Ptolemaic Astron.)
A circle, whose center moves round in the circumference of a greater circle; or a small circle, whose center, being fixed in the deferent of a planet, is carried along with the deferent, and yet, by its own peculiar motion, carries the body of the planet fastened to it round its proper center.
The schoolmen were like astronomers which did feign eccentrics, and
epicycles
, and such engines of orbs. Bacon.
2.
(Mech.)
A circle which rolls on the circumference of another circle, either externally or internally.
Webster 1828 Edition
Epicycle
EP'ICYCLE
,Noun.
Definition 2024
epicycle
epicycle
See also: épicycle
English
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, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: 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.
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.155:
- (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
any circle whose circumference rolls around that of another circle
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