geocentricn.adj.
/ˌdʒiːə(ʊ)ˈsɛntrɪk/, /dʒɪəˈsɛntrɪk/, U.S. /ˌdʒioʊˈsɛntrɪk/ 1. An adherent of the theory that the earth occupies the centre of the universe; (also) a person regarding astronomical phenomena as observed from the earth. Obsolete.
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1664 A. Nowell Almanack for Year 1665 (facing February) This assertion is not expugned by Geocentricks, who produce sense and antiquity to support their suppositions; nor oppugned by Heliocentricks, who deduce their Hypothesis from reason and observations.
1697 J. Partridge Defectio Geniturarum xi. 96 When we Geocentricks see it is an Opposition, from a Point in the Orb of Satun, it is a Conjunction.
1844 W. H. Smyth Cycle Celestial Objects I. 65 This, as well as the other effusions of the Geocentrics, might have been passed over, but that they are lauded, ad astra, by many who deserve a better mental pabulum.
2. A planet that orbits the earth; the orbit of such a planet. Obsolete.
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1679 J. Moxon Math. made Easie 58 Geocentrick, any Planet or Orb that has the Earth for its Centre, or the same Centre with the Earth.
c1705 Revolving Moons 2 The Right-Line from the Center of the Geocentre to the Centre of the Lunaris expresses the excentricity.
B. adj.
1. Astronomy. Measured or determined with reference to the earth; considered from the viewpoint of a notional observer on the earth, or at the centre of the earth.
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the world > the universe > planet > primary planet > earth > [adjective] > as centre
geocentrical1653
geocentric1671
circumterrestrial1830
1671 W. Cock Meteorologia sig. A 6v Not only the Geocentrick Aspects ought to be considered, but also the Heliocentrick Aspects of the Planets.
1681 I. Newton Let. ?Apr. in Corr. (1960) II. 362 I speak of its heliocentrick not Geocentrick place in ye ecliptick.
1715 tr. D. Gregory Elements Astron. I. i. §8. 15 Its Geocentric Latitude measured by the Angle ♂ t E.
1728 tr. I. Newton Treat. Syst. World 18 From the very great inequality of its apparent geocentric motion, we infer that the force by which Jupiter is..made to revolve in an orb, is not directed to the center of the Earth.
1767 Scots Mag. Nov. 585/2 The moon's geocentric distance.
1812 Philos. Mag. 39 43 The geocentric longitude of the comet.
1880 Nature 29 Jan. 315/1 The apparent retardation of the eclipses as affected by the geocentric position of Jupiter.
1929 Sci. News Let. 3 Aug. 70/3 [Galle] found, on the same evening, a new planet..within 55′ of the geocentric place assigned by Mr. Le Verrier.
1973 Nature 13 July 68/1 A large meteorite might..be moving with a geocentric velocity of 30 km s−1.
2009 R. Lunsford Meteors iii. 11 A star chart..is presented along with parameters of each shower, such as celestial position, radiant drift per day, and geocentric velocity.
2. Astronomy. Of an orbit: having the earth as its centre or focus. Also: (of a cosmology, world view, etc.) representing the earth as situated at the centre of the universe. Also figurative and in extended use.
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1797 Encycl. Brit. III. 632/1 Geocentric, in astronomy, is applied to a planet, or its orbit, to denote it concentric with the earth.
1834 Nat. Philos. (Libr. Useful Knowl.) III. (Gloss. at cited word) The moon's orbit is Geocentric; but the orbits of the other planets, and of the earth itself, are Heliocentric.
1854 T. De Quincey Autobiogr. Sketches in Select. Grave & Gay II. 48 Wheel into a new centre your moral system; geocentric has that system been up to this hour—that is, having earth and the earthly for its starting-point.
1865 G. Grote Plato I. i. 14 The original system proposed by Protagoras was a geocentric system.
1891 T. Hardy Tess of the D'Urbervilles II. iv. xxv. 56 Its transcendental aspirations—still unconsciously based on the geocentric view of things, a zenithal paradise, a nadiral hell.
1934 E. Pound Make it New 387 We find nowhere in his poem any implication of a belief in a geocentric or theocentric material universe.
2004 Discover Nov. 22/1 We keep an infantile, geocentric view of the universe locked within our hearts.
2007 D. A. Weintraub Is Pluto a Planet? ii. 26 Ptolemy..produced a worldview known as the Ptolemaic universe, which is a complicated, mathematicized version of Aristotle's geocentric universe.
3. Chiefly Business. Characterized by a view of the world as a whole rather than as a group of distinct regions, countries, etc.; global, supranational.
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the world > relative properties > kind or sort > generality > [adjective] > universal > making > adopting a global approach
globalist1950
geocentric1967
1967 Rotarian May 28/3 The emergence of jet aircraft harnessed this world into a geocentric system of such appalling intimacies.
1970 World Politics 22 621 The traditional prejudices of ethnocentricity need to be attenuated by a geocentric approach to political science.
1985 Jrnl. Internat. Business Stud. 16 4 Regiocentric MNEs organize and coordinate groups of national operations into distinct and separate geographical blocs and geocentric MNEs try to integrate world operations across all national and geographic regions.
2009 J. Kuhn in R. Dekkers Dispersed Manufacturing Networks viii. 167 The geocentric attitude in combination with disseminated manufacturing units..is favoured to be the most suitable approach for globalization.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1664