pre-Copernican

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   existing before Nicolaus Copernicus's work or before acceptance of the heliocentric model associated with him

   The manuscript preserves a pre-Copernican account in which Earth stands motionless at the center of the cosmos.

2. 2
   adj

   figurative: retaining a geocentric or human-centered outlook comparable to thought before the Copernican revolution

   The philosopher called the theory pre-Copernican because it made human purposes the center of reality.

Formed from pre- ('before') and Copernican, the adjective from the Latinized surname of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. Copernican has denoted his heliocentric system since the seventeenth century; pre-Copernican therefore marks either an earlier period or, figuratively, an outlook that still puts Earth or humanity at the center.

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