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epicyclic

[ep-uh-sahy-kuhl]

noun

Astronomy. a small circle the center of which moves around in the circumference of a larger circle: used in Ptolemaic astronomy to account for observed periodic irregularities in planetary motions.

Mathematics. a circle that rolls, externally or internally, without slipping, on another circle, generating an epicycloid or hypocycloid.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French < Late Latin epicyclus < Greek epíkyklos. See epi-, cycle

Related forms

ep·i·cy·clic

[ep-uh-sahy-klik, -sik-lik] , adjective

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Epicyclic is always a great word to know.

So is callithumpian. Does it mean:

a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.

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World English Dictionary

epicycle (ˈɛpɪˌsaɪk^əl)

—n
1.	astronomy (in the Ptolemaic system) a small circle, around which a planet was thought to revolve, whose centre describes a larger circle (the deferent) centred on the earth
2.	a circle that rolls around the inside or outside of another circle, so generating an epicycloid or hypocycloid

[C14: from Late Latin epicyclus, from Greek epikuklos; see epi-, cycle]

epicyclic

—*adj*

epi'cyclical

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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epicyclic

ep·i·cy·cle