primum mobile
Americannoun
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(in Ptolemaic astronomy) the outermost of the 10 concentric spheres of the universe, making a complete revolution every 24 hours and causing all the others to do likewise.
noun
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a prime mover
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astronomy the outermost empty sphere in the Ptolemaic system that was thought to revolve around the earth from east to west in 24 hours carrying with it the inner spheres of the planets, sun, moon, and fixed stars
Etymology
Origin of primum mobile
Literally, “first moving (thing)”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Seraphs, the most powerful angels, kept the primum mobile moving; cherubs moved the zodiac, thrones the sphere of Saturn, and so on down to the moon, which fell under the care of common angels.
From Time Magazine Archive
There was no doubt whatever that Judge McCamant was the primum mobile of the chain of accidents which made our present President.
From Time Magazine Archive
The innermost was the central and unmoving earth; outward from the earth were the spheres of the moon, of the five known planets, of the sun and the zodiac, and finally the primum mobile.
From Time Magazine Archive
A less impracticable subject for excitement,--the primum mobile of all American patriotism and activity, if we are to believe the theories of the times,--could not be found, than this gentleman.
From Homeward Bound or, the Chase by James Fenimore Cooper
The truth is, that in these days the grand "primum mobile" of England is cant; cant political, cant poetical, cant religious, cant moral; but always cant, multiplied through all the varieties of life.
From Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 6 With His Letters and Journals by Thomas Moore
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
