Revolution - Etymology

Etymology

Copernicus named his 1543 treatise on the movements of planets around the sun De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of Celestial Bodies) and this has come to be the model type of a scientific revolution. However, “revolution” is attested by at least 1450 in the sense of representing abrupt change in a social order. Political usage of the term had been well established by 1688 in the description of the replacement of James II with William III. The process was termed "The Glorious Revolution". Apparently the sense of social change and the geometric sense as in Surface of revolution developed in various European languages from Latin between the 14th and 17th centuries, the former developing as a metaphor from the latter. “Revolt” as an event designation appears after the process term and is given a related but distinct and later derivation.

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