Co·per·ni·cus

(kō-pûr′nə-kəs, kə-), Nicolaus 1473-1543.

Polish astronomer who proposed a heliocentric model of the universe, contradicting the Ptolemaic system that had dominated medieval cosmology.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Copernicus

(kəˈpɜːnɪkəs)

(Biography) Nicolaus (ˌnɪkəˈleɪəs). Polish name Mikolaj Kopernik. 1473–1543, Polish astronomer, whose theory of the solar system (the Copernican system) was published in 1543

Coˈpernican adj

Copernicus

(kəˈpɜːnɪkəs)

(Astronomy) a conspicuous crater on the moon, over 4000 metres deep and 90 kilometres in diameter, from which a system of rays emanates

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Co•per•ni•cus

(koʊˈpɜr nɪ kəs, kə-)

n.

Nicolaus (Mikołaj Kopernik), 1473–1543, Polish astronomer who promulgated the theory that the earth and the other planets move around the sun (the Coper′nican Sys`tem).

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	Copernicus - Polish astronomer who produced a workable model of the solar system with the sun in the center (1473-1543) Mikolaj Kopernik, Nicolaus Copernicus
	2.	Copernicus - a conspicuous crater on the Moon

Translations

Koperník

Copernicus

[kəˈpɜːnɪkəs] N → Copérnico

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Copernicus

n → Kopernikus m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Copernicus

[kəˈpɜːnɪkəs] n → Copernico

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

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References in classic literature

From the time the law of Copernicus was discovered and proved, the mere recognition of the fact that it was not the sun but the earth that moves sufficed to destroy the whole cosmography of the ancients.

To the defenders of the laws of Copernicus and Newton, to Voltaire for example, it seemed that the laws of astronomy destroyed religion, and he utilized the law of gravitation as a weapon against religion.

So too, like Voltaire in his time, uninvited defenders of the law of inevitability today use that law as a weapon against religion, though the law of inevitability in history, like the law of Copernicus in astronomy, far from destroying, even strengthens the foundation on which the institutions of state and church are erected.

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This Copernicus forms the most important of the radiating system, situated in the southern hemisphere, according to Tycho Brahe.

"There exist," said Barbicane, "several kinds of circles on the surface of the moon, and it is easy to see that Copernicus belongs to the radiating class.

The circumference of Copernicus formed almost a perfect circle, and its steep escarpments were clearly defined.

Over the whole of this, and in all directions, lay the luminous lines, all converging to the summit of Copernicus.

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From the time of Thales of Miletus, in the fifth century B.C., down to that of Copernicus in the fifteenth and Tycho Brahe in the sixteenth century A.D., observations have been from time to time carried on with more or less correctness, until in the present day the altitudes of the lunar mountains have been determined with exactitude.

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About the year 1540, the Polish Copernicus opened a still grander realm of speculation (not to be adequately possessed for several centuries) by the announcement that our world is not the center of the universe, but merely one of the satellites of its far-superior sun.

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Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?

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Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh.

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Why does it always crucify Christ and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?

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