orrery

/ˈɒɹ.ə.ɹi/

Etymology

Named after Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery (1676–1731), for whom such a device was made. The placename is from Irish Orbhraighe, originally the name of a tribe (Orbh-raighe (“Orb's people”)), and then of a territory and a barony.

orrery means A clockwork model of any given solar system. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.

Why this word is great

ORRERY — [Noun] A mechanical, often clockwork, model of the solar system used to demonstrate the relative positions and motions of the celestial bodies. Named after Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery (1676–1731), for whom an early example was made; the earldom derives from the place name Orrery in Ireland, from Irish Orbhraighe, originally the name of a tribe, Orbh-raighe ("Orb's people"). Unlike an "armillary sphere," a static cage of celestial rings, or a "planetarium," an immersive, projected illusion, the orrery is a tangible engine of brass and ambition. It is the soft, precise tick of an escapement measuring millennia in minutes; the gilded sun casting a warm gleam on orbiting, miniature worlds; the slow, meshing turn of cogs that renders a planet's year-long pilgrimage comprehensible—a human-scale testament to our need to hold the infinite, just for a moment, and feel its turning in our hands.

noun

A clockwork model of any given solar system.“In the mean time I have another trouble to give you, if you will oblige me in it; and that is to get me a sight of the famous Orrery, which I have heard you and others so often speak of; and which I think was made by Mr. Rowley, the famous Mathematical Instrument-Maker.”
A conceptual model of someone's worldview.“This book is the result of fourteen thousand miles in the saddle and four years in the library. It describes the lives of the inhabitants of France – wherever possible, through their own eyes – and the exploration and colonization of their land by foreigners and natives, from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth. It follows a roughly chronological route, from the end of the reign of”