tellurion

Meaning

Noun

• An instrument used to show how the rotation of the Earth on its axis and its orbit around the Sun cause day and night and the seasons.

Origin

• From Latin tellūs ("earth, ground; the globe, planet Earth; country, land") (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- ("ground, bottom") -ion (a Latinate suffix used in place of -ian), possibly coined by Benjamin Martin (baptized 1705; died 1782), an English lecturer, lexicographer, and maker of scientific instruments: see the quotation.