heliocentrism

[hee-lee-uh-sen-triz-uhm]

noun

1. the astronomical theory in which the sun is at the center of a system that includes the earth and other planets, which revolve around it.

Other Word Forms

• heliocentrist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of heliocentrism¹

First recorded in 1875–80; heliocentr(ic) ( def. ) + -ism ( def. )

Example Sentences

It named for Nicolaus Copernicus, the Renaissance proponent of heliocentrism, the theory that placed the sun rather than the Earth at the centre of the universe.

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Rogan and his guest Jordan Peterson — another whiny reactionary who largely focuses on throwing tantrums over challenges to patriarchal authority and threatens to sue feminists who question him — recently unleashed a bunch of complaints about the science of climate change that really would have felt comfy to a 16th century priest defending heliocentrism.

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Both discoveries provided key evidence in favor of the model of heliocentrism, developed by Nicolaus Copernicus and published in 1543, which displaced the previous, dogmatic and incorrect, geocentric model of the universe.

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Copernicus’s disciple Rheticus, in the first published account of the Copernican theory, held back any reference to heliocentrism for as long as he possibly could, for fear of alienating his readers.

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Belief in a heliocentric universe was not yet condemned by the Church: it was forbidden only in 1616 and remained so until 1758, when the Index omitted the general ban on books teaching heliocentrism; Copernicus himself continued to be banned until 1821.

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