Primum Mobile

Definition: Primum Mobile

1. A self-caused agent that is the cause of all things; "God is the first cause".

Specialty Definition: Primum Mobile

Domain	Definition
Literature	Primum Mobile in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, was the tenth (not ninth) sphere, supposed to revolve from east to west in twenty-four hours, carrying with it all the other spheres. The eleven spheres are: (1) Diana or the Moon, (2) Mercury, (3) Venus, (4) Apollo or the Sun, (5) Mars, (6) Jupiter, (7) Saturn, (8) the starry sphere or that of the fixed stars, (9) the crystalline, (10) the primum mobile, and (11) the empyrean. Ptolemy himself acknowledged only the first nine; the two latter were devised by his disciples. The motion of the crystalline, according to this system, causes the precession of the equinoxes, its axis being that of the ecliptic. The motion of the primum mobile produces the alternation of day and night; its axis is that of the equator, and its extremities the poles of the heavens. "They pass the planets seven, and pass the `fixed' [starry sphere], And that crystallin sphere ... and that `First-Moved."' Milton: Paradise Lost, iii. 482. Primum Mobile is figuratively applied to that machine which communicates motion to several others; and also to persons and ideas suggestive of complicated systems. Socrate was the primum mobile of the Dialectic, Megaric, Cyrenaic, and Cynic systems of philosophy. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms within Context: Primum Mobile

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Cause	Noun: cause, origin, source, principle, element; occasioner, prime mover, primum mobile; vera causa; author; (producer); mainspring; agent; leaven; groundwork, foundation; (support).
Motive	Reason, ground, call, principle; by end, by purpose; mainspring, primum mobile, keystone; the why and the wherefore; pro and con, reason why; secret motive, arriere pensee; intention.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Specialty definitions using "primum mobile": Nine Spheres. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Primum Mobile" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses.

Hungarian (prime mover).

Anagrams: Primum Mobile

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "b-e-i-i-l-m-m-m-o-p-r-u"
	-4 letters: emporium, immobile, imperium, plummier.
	-5 letters: bumpier, embroil, imperil, implore, limbier, lumpier, mumbler, plumber, plumier, preboil, premium, problem, pummelo, replumb.
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