An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

1) An act of entering, as into a place or upon new duties.
2) A point or place of entering; an opening or passage for entering, as a doorway (Dictionary.com). → entrance pupil, → entrance slit.

M.E. entraunce, from M.Fr. entrance, from → enter + → -ance.

Darâyeš, verbal noun of darâmadan, darâyidan, → enter; darâygâh with space suffix -gâh.

In an → optical system, the image of the → aperture stop formed in → object space. See also → exit pupil.

→ entrance; → pupil.

A thin slit in an opaque screen by which light enters a spectrograph.

→ entrance; → slit.

1) A measure of the energy that is not available for work during a → thermodynamic process. It is defined by dS = dQ/T, where dS is the differential change in entropy, dQ is the differential amount of heat introduced to the system in a → reversible process, and T the → absolute temperature of the system. Entropy remains constant during → reversible processes and increases during → irreversible processes without ever decreasing. According to the → second law of thermodynamics, an → isolated system evolves toward a state of maximum entropy. See also → Maxwell's demon.
2) Statistical physics: A measure of → disorder of the configuration of → microstates which make up a → macrostate. → Boltzmann's relation, → Boltzmann's entropy formula. Highly disordered systems have a large entropy; highly ordered systems have low entropy.
3) Math.: A measure of information content. → information entropy.

From Ger. Entropie, coined 1865 by physicist Rudolf Clausius (1822-1888) from Gk. entropia "a turning toward," from en- "in" + trope "a turning, change," related to tropos "a turn, way, manner," from tropein "to turn," from PIE base *trep- "to turn" (cf. L. trepit "he turns").

Dargâšt, from dar "in" + gâšt present stem of gâštan "to cause to revolve, to turn," transitive of gaštan, variant gardidan "to turn, to change" (Mid.Pers. vartitan; Av. varət- "to turn, revolve;" cf. Skt. vartati; L. vertere; O.H.G. werden "to become;" PIE base *wer- "to turn, bend").

1) An act of entering; → entrance.
2) Permission or right to enter; access.
3) A place of ingress or entrance, especially an entrance hall or vestibule.
4) The act of entering or recording something in a book, register, list, etc. The statement, item, etc., so entered or recorded (Dictionary.com).

M.E. entre(e), from O.Fr. entree, from L. intrata, p.p. of intrare "to → enter."

Darâyé, noun from darây present stem of darâmadan, darâyidan, → enter, + -é noun suffix.

A shell of dust or gas expanding out from an astronomical object such as a star or a comet's nucleus.

From Fr. enveloppe, from O.Fr. envoloper "to envelop," from en- "in" + voloper "wrap up," of obscure origin, perhaps related to M.L. aluppa "a very thin piece or slice of wood" and influenced by L. volvere "to roll."

Pušé, noun from pušidan "to cover; to put on;" Mid.Pers. pôšidan, pôš- "to cover; to wear;" cf. Mid.Pers. pôst; Mod.Pers. pust "skin, hide;" O.Pers. pavastā- "thin clay envelope used to protect unbaked clay tablets;" Skt. pavásta- "cover," Proto-Indo-Iranian *pauastā- "cloth."

1) An aggregate of surrounding → circumstances, → conditions, or → influences in which a thing is situated or is developed.
2) Computers: The entire set of conditions under which one operates a → computer, as it relates to the hardware, operating platform, or operating system.
3) Ecology: The totality of circumstances surrounding an → organism or group of organisms. More specifically, the combination of external physical conditions that affect and influence the growth, development, and survival of organisms.

From environ + -ment; the first component from Fr. environs, plural of O.Fr. environ "compass, circuit," from environ (adv.) "around," from en- "in" + viron "circle, circuit," from virer "to turn."

Pargir, from par- "around, surrounding," variant pirâ-→ circum- + gir agent noun and present stem of gereftan "to take, seize; to make prisoner; to intercept" (Mid.Pers. griftan; Av./O.Pers. grab- "to take, seize;" cf. Skt. grah-, grabh- "to seize, take," graha "seizing, holding, perceiving;" M.L.G. grabben "to grab," from P.Gmc. *grab; E. grab "to take or grasp suddenly;" PIE base *ghrebh- "to seize").
Zistbum, from zist "life, existence," → bio-, + bum "region, land, place," → eco-.

1) The time that must be added to the lunar year (12 lunations) to make it coincide with the solar year (about 11 days).
2) The moon's age at the beginning of the calendar year.

From Fr. épacte, from L. epacta, from Gk. epaktos, verbal adj. of epagein "to intercalate, add, bring forward," from epi "on" + ag-, from agein "to bring, to lead;" cf. L. agere "to drive, set in motion," → act.

Barafzâ, from bar- "on, upon, up" (Mid.Pers. abar; O.Pers. upariy "above; over, upon, according to;" Av. upairi "above, over," upairi.zəma- "located above the earth;" cf. Gk. hyper- "over, above;" L. super-; O.H.G. ubir "over;" PIE base *uper "over") + afzâ, afzudan "to add, increase" (Mid.Pers. abzudan "to increase, grow;" O.Pers. abijav- "to increase, add to, promote," from abi-, aiby- "in addition to; to; against" + root jav- "to press forward;" Av. gav- "to hasten, drive;" Sk. jav- "to press forward, impel quickly, excite," javate "hastens").

In Old Iranian and Egyptian calendars and much later in the → French Republican Calendar, one of five (or six) days placed between the 30th of the last month and the first day of the new year to result in a fixed year of 365 (366) days every year; plural epagomenae. Same as → epagomenal day. See also → sansculottide.

From Gk. epagomenos "added," from epagein "to add, to intercalate," from → epi- "on" + agein "to bring, to lead," → act.

Andargâh "intercalary," literally "time between," from andar "between, among," → inter-, + gâh "time;" Mid.Pers. gâh; O.Pers. gāθu-; Av. gātav-, gātu- "place, throne, spot" (Skt. gátu- "going, motion; free space for moving; place of abode;" PIE *gwem- "to go, come").
Tarufté "intercalary," literally "stolen (day);" Mid.Pers. truftag, from taruftan "to steal," traft "stolen;" Mod.Pers. Lârestâni dialect toftak "spy;" Av. tarəp- "to steal," tarəfiiāt- "he would steal;" cf. Skt. tarp- "to steal, rob," paśu.trp- "stealing cattle."
Dozdidé "intercalary," literally "stolen (day)," p.p. of dozdidan "to steal," Mid.Pers. duz(d)itan, from duzd "thief," from Av. duždāo- "miscreant, villain."

Same as → epagomena.

→ epagomena + → -al; → day.

A table of computed positions occupied by a celestial body over successive intervals of time such as daily; plural ephemerides.

From L. ephemeris "day book, diary," from Gk. ephemeris "diary, account book," from ephemeros "short-lived, lasting but a day," from → epi "on, upon" + hemerai, dative of hemera "day."

Ruzij, from ruz, → day + zij "astronomical table," from Mid.Pers. zig "astronomical table," originally "string," since the lines of a table were compared to strings used on a weaver's instrument, variant zih, meaning "cord, string" (Modern Persian zeh "cord, string"); Av. jiiā- "bow-string;" cf. Skt. jiyā- "bow-string;" PIE base *g^whi- "thread, tendon" (from which derive also Gk. bios "bow;" L. filum "thread;" Russ. žca "thread").

86,400 → ephemeris seconds.

→ ephemeris; → day.

A fictitious meridian that rotates independently of the Earth at the uniform rate implicitly defined by → Terrestrial Dynamical Time (TDT).

→ ephemeris; → meridian.

The length of a tropical second (1/31,556,925.97474 of the tropical year) on 1900 January 0.5 → ephemeris time.

→ ephemeris; → second.

The uniform time-scale used as the independent variable to calculate the orbits in the solar system prior to 1984. Ephemeris Time was adopted in 1960 to deal with irregularities in the → Earth's rotation that had been found to affect the course of mean solar time. The definition of Ephemeris Time is based on Newcomb's analytical theory of the Earth's motion around the Sun (Newcomb 1898), according to which the geometric mean longitude of the Sun with respect to the Earth-Moon barycenter is expressed by:
L = 279° 41' 48".04 + 129 602 768".13 T + 1''.089 T²,
where L refers to the → mean equinox of date while T measures time from noon 1900 January 0 GMT in Julian centuries of 36525 days. Ephemeris Time is therefore defined as the instant near the beginning of the calendar year A.D. 1900 when the mean longitude of the Sun was 279° 41' 48''.04, at which instant the measure of ET was 1900 January 0, 12h precisely. In this system the fundamental unit was the → ephemeris second, which was defined so that the → tropical year at the epoch 1900.0 should be exactly 31 556 925,9747 seconds of ephemerides. Ephemeris Time was inconvenient in many ways and was supeseded with the → Terrestrial Dynamical Time (TDT), whose fundamental unit is the SI second.

→ ephemeris; → time.

The passage of a celestial body or point across the → ephemeris meridian.

→ ephemeris; → transit.

Prefix meaning "upon, at, close upon (in space or time), on the occasion of, in addition."

Gk. epi- "upon, at, close upon (in space or time), on the occasion of, in addition," cognate with O.Pers./Av. apiy-, aipi- "upon, toward, along; also; however;" Skt. api "also, besides."

Prefix api-, from O.Pers./Av. apiy-, aipi-, as above.

1) In → Ptolemaic system, a circular → orbit of a body around a point that itself orbits circularly another point. Such a system was formulated to explain some → planetary orbits in terms of → circular motions in a → geocentric cosmology.
2a) Math.: A circle that rolls, externally or internally on another circle, generating an → epicycloid or → hypocycloid.
2b) In → galactic dynamics models describing the → spiral arms, a → perturbation of simple circular orbits. → epicyclic theory.

→ epi-; → cycle.

1) Falak-e tadvir, from Ar. falak al-tadwir, from falak "sphere" + tadwir "causing to turn in a circle."
2) → epi-; → cycle.

Of or pertaining to an → epicycle.

→ epicycle; → -ic.

In the → epicyclic theory of Galactic rotation, the frequency at which a star in the → Galactic disk describes an ellipse around its mean circular orbit. The epicyclic frequency relates to the → Oort's constants. In the solar neighborhood the epicyclic frequency is about 32 km s^-1 kpc^-1.

→ epicyclic; → frequency.