Wordie [wûrd • ē]
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Serendipity (495 words)
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suzyg's Words, by suzyg
lex's Words, by lex
adrift's Words, by adrift
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"... in astronomy, is that part of a planet's orbit which is at the greatest distance from the sun, being that end of the greater axis of the elliptic orbit of the planet, most remote from the focus wherein the sun is placed; and is, therefore, opposed to Perihelion.
"The times of the aphelia of the primary planets may be known by their apparent diameter appearing the smallest, and also by their moving with the least velocity, in a given time. They may likewise be found by calculation, which De Lande, De la Caille, and other astronomical writers treat of at large."
—Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 19
Surprisingly, this word is pronounced properly "a-phelion" instead of the common "ap-helion", as in Greek the pi + rough breathing elides to phi. Granted, in the more ancient pronunciation phi *is in fact pronounced as an aspirated pi, but that approaches pedantry. For comparison see ephemeral.