English
epicycle
Epicycle comes from Latin epicyclus, and goes back to Ancient Greek ἐπίκυκλος.
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἐπίκυκλοςepíkuklos
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEepicyclus
- Englishearliest quotation 1978epicycle
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἐπίκυκλοςepíkuklos
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEepicyclus
- Englishearliest quotation 1978epicycle
Earliest quotation: 1978, The Journal of the Siam Society: “If two chronicles seemed contradictory, instead of trying to…”
A compound of ἐπί ‘upon’ + κύκλος ‘circle’
Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep- ‘to grab, snatch, get’
Proto-Indo-European *h₁épi ‘on’
Proto-Hellenic *epí
Ancient Greek ἐπί ‘upon’
Proto-Indo-European *kʷékʷlos ‘circle, wheel’
Proto-Hellenic *kúklos ‘circle, wheel’
Ancient Greek κύκλος ‘circle’
The story
The ad hoc complication sense is a generalization from the archetype supplied by the Ptolemaic astronomy sense.
Every English word from Ancient Greek ἐπίκυκλος
Today it means
noun 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.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Ancient Greek ἐπίκυκλος / epicycle