primum mobile
(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.
Origin of primum mobile
1Words Nearby primum mobile
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How to use primum mobile in a sentence
With him prayer was a thing of absolute necessity, and resignation to the eternal decrees the primum mobile of all.
A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 1 (of 10) | Franois-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire)The notion that there must be something immovable which moves all other things, is the old scholastic error of a primum mobile.
A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive | John Stuart MillThe primum mobile of the new system was Motion, in distinction from the Rest which marked the old monastic retreats.
Beacon Lights of History, Volume V | John LordIn this effort lies its only possible unity, its primum mobile, its one clearly defined object from beginning to end.
The Education of American Girls | Anna Callender BrackettHere it clearly refers to the primum mobile; it often applies to the whole expanse of the heavens.
Astronomical Lore in Chaucer | Florence M. Grimm
British Dictionary definitions for primum mobile
/ Latin (ˈpraɪmʊm ˈməʊbɪlɪ) /
a prime mover
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
Origin of primum mobile
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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