| 释义 |
‖ primum mobile|ˈpraɪməm ˈməʊbɪliː|
[med.L., lit. ‘first moving thing’, L. prīm-us first, mōbilis movable: see prime a. and mobile n.1 and a.
Primum mobile (also primus motus, primus motor) was an 11–12th c. rendering of the Arabic al-muḥarrik al-awwal, the first mover or moving (thing), cited from Avicenna (a 1037) by Shahrastānī (a 1153). The L. occurs in Thomas Aquinas Comment. in Aristot. De Cælo ii. ix. §1, xv. §7; also in John of Holywood (de Sacrobosco) 1256.]
1. The supposed outermost sphere (at first reckoned the ninth, later the tenth), added in the Middle Ages to the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, and supposed to revolve round the earth from east to west in twenty-four hours, carrying with it the (eight or nine) contained spheres. Cf. mobile n.1 1, and movable n. 1.
[1256Joh. de Sacrobosco Sphæra Mundi (Paris c 1500) A ij, Sphera diuiditur..secundum substantiam in spheras novem, sc. Spheram nonam que primus motus siue primum mobile dicitur, et in spheram stellarum fixarum que firmamentum nuncupatur, et in septem spheras septem planetarum. c1391Chaucer Astrol. i. §17 This equinoxial is cleped the gyrdelle of the firste Moeuyng, or elles of the angulus primi motus vel primi mobilis.] 1460–70Bk. Quintessence (1889) 26 Philosofirs puttyn 9 speris vndirewritten; but Diuinis putten þe tenþe spere, where is heuyn empire,..in þe whiche is crist..and also owre lady, & seyntis þat arosen with criste. Þe first spere of þe 9 is clepid ‘primum mobile’, þe first mevabil thyng. 1559W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 10 The .x. heauen or Primum mobile, comprehendeth the .ix. heauen callid also Cristalline. Ibid. 12 And that, which you call the eight heauen, they name primum mobile. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. i. ii. 13 The Motion of the Moon is..caused by the diurnal swiftness of the Primum Mobile. 1686J. Dunton Lett. fr. New-Eng. (1867) 18 He is always looking upwards; yet dares believe nothing above Primum Mobile, for 'tis out of the reach of his Jacob's Staff. 1690Leybourn Curs. Math. 451 Others are of Opinion that they [comets] are fiery Meteors, generated of copious exhalations from the Earth and Sea,..elevated to the Supreme Region of the Air, and hurried about by the swift Motion of the Primum Mobile. 1733P. Shaw tr. Bacon's Nov. Org. i. lx, Of the former kind [i.e. Names of Things that have no Existence] are such as Fortune, the Primum Mobile, the Orbs of the Planets, the Element of Fire, and the like Figments; which arise from imaginary false Theories. 1847Ld. Lindsay Sk. Chr. Art I. p. xxxii, Beyond the region of fire..succeeded the spheres of the seven planets;..the firmament, or eighth heaven;..the crystalline, or ninth heaven;..and the primum mobile, a void;—the whole continually revolving round the earth, and encompassed in their turn by the empyrean.
2. transf. and fig. A prime source of motion or action; an original cause or spring of activity; a prime mover, mainspring. Cf. prime mover 1, 2.
1612G. Calvert in Crt. & Times Jas. I (1848) I. 191 You know the primum mobile of our court, by whose motion all the other spheres must move, or else stand still. 1655Marquis of Worcester Cent. Inv. §98 An Engine so contrived that working the Primum mobile forward or backward, upward or downward, circularly or corner-wise, to and fro, streight, upright or downright, yet the pretended Operation continueth, and advanceth. 1673Kirkman Unlucky Citizen 207 My Son, keep thou ready Money in thy Pocket: this is the primum Mobile of all their Science of thriving. 1753Hanway Trav. (1762) II. ix. ii. 216 Their religion, which the Mahommedans consider as the basis and primum mobile of political government. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 670 Each man's own satisfaction, interest, or happiness, is the primum mobile or the first spring of all his schemes and all his actions. 1802–12Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) III. 285 Modified by the other known primum mobiles, or causes of motion and rest. 1864Bryce Holy Rom. Emp. xv. (1889) 255 There must, in every system of forces, be a ‘primum mobile’. |