epicycle
名词 n.
英 /ˈɛpɪˌsaɪkəl/
英文释义
名词 n.
-
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.
— 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.
- Any circle whose circumference rolls around that of another circle, thus creating a hypocycloid or epicycloid.
- A ring of atoms joining parts of an already cyclic compound
-
An ad hoc complication added to a model to make it fit the known data
— If two chronicles seemed contradictory, instead of trying to choose between them, a rationalization (epicycle) was devised to cover both.
词形变化
词源
From Latin epicyclus, from Ancient Greek ἐπίκυκλος (epíkuklos), from ἐπί (epí, “upon”) + κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”). The ad hoc complication sense is a generalization from the archetype supplied by the Ptolemaic astronomy sense.
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数据来源: Wiktionary