ECCENTRICITY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Eccentricity

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/ˌɛksəntrˈɪsəti/ Listen

noun

Eccentricity n. (pl. eccentricities)

The state of being eccentric; deviation from the customary line of conduct; oddity.

(Math.) The ratio of the distance between the center and the focus of an ellipse or hyperbola to its semi-transverse axis.

(Astron.) The ratio of the distance of the center of the orbit of a heavenly body from the center of the body round which it revolves to the semi-transverse axis of the orbit.

(Mech.) The distance of the center of figure of a body, as of an eccentric, from an axis about which it turns; the throw.

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Etymology of 'Eccentricity'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Eccentricity" Quotes from Famous Books

... we had observed for some centuries the forms of the orbits in which the heavenly bodies move, and we had found these to be ellipses with a very small eccentricity. But why this was the form of those orbits no one could even conjecture. If any person, the most deeply skilled in mathematical science, and the most internally convinced of the universal prevalence of design and contrivance in the structure of the universe, had been asked what reason there ...

— The Fallen Star; and, A Dissertation on the Origin of Evil • E. L. Bulwer; and, Lord Brougham

... imagination, passions, diseases, and what is usually called genius, are often very markedly traced in the offspring.—I have known mental impressions forcibly impressed upon the offspring at the time of conception, as concomitant of some peculiar eccentricity, idiosyncracy, morbidness, waywardness, irritability, or proclivity of either ...

— Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners • B.G. Jefferis

... fists and looked round for the means of vengeance. David went down on his knees. La Bazalgette glared through the crack, and wondered what on earth he was at now. Oh! he was praying. "He loves her: he is eccentricity itself; so he is praying for her, and on my doorsteps" (the householder wounded as well as the flirt). It was lucky she had not "a thunderbolt in her eye"—Shakespeare, or a celestial messenger of the wrong ...

— Love Me Little, Love Me Long • Charles Reade

... It is this which has caused us to extend to you our sympathy and protection. Long and intense study, family sorrow, and certain inherited traits of disposition, whose rapid development have tended to lack of normal mental balance, account to us for those deeds of eccentricity on your part which have plunged us into extreme embarrassment and yourself into the illness which threatened your young life. Is it not ...

— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking

... was this man, and he was known up and down the Texas border as the Ring Tailed Panther although his right name was Martin Palmer. But he had lived long among the Osage, Kiowa and Pawnee Indians, and he was renowned throughout all the Southwestern country for his bravery, skill and eccentricity. An Indian had killed a white man and eaten his heart. He captured the Indian and compelled him to eat until he died. When his favorite bear dog died he rode sixty miles and brought a minister to preach a sermon over his body. A little boy was captured on ...

— The Texan Star - The Story of a Great Fight for Liberty • Joseph A. Altsheler

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