/ˈɔːɹ.bɪt/·noun·1596 (in English astronomical sense)·Established
Origin
'Orbit' was a humble cart-wheel rut — Latin 'orbita' (wheel-track) was promoted to planetary paths.
Definition
The curved path of a celestial object or spacecraft around a star, planet, or moon, typically due to gravitational attraction.
The Full Story
Latin1st century CEwell-attested
From Latin orbita (course, track, rut made by a wheel), from orbis (circle, ring, disk, orb). Orbis likely derives from thePIEroot *h₃erbʰ- (to turn, change), though some scholars connect it to *h₃er- (to move, stir). From Latin orbis came a constellation of English derivatives: orb (sphere, globe), orbit (circular path), orbital, orbiter,
Did you know?
Theword 'exorbitant' literally means 'off the track' — from Latin 'ex-' (out of) + 'orbita' (track, wheel-rut). Something exorbitant has gone off the beaten path, veered out of its orbit. A price that is 'exorbitant' has, metaphorically, left its proper circular course and gone wildly off track.
, not perfect circles. English borrowed orbit from Latin in the 1540s, initially in the anatomical sense (eye socket — the orbital cavity), with the astronomical sense following by the 1690s. The modern space-age sense (to orbit the Earth) appeared as a verb in the 20th century, completing a semantic arc from wheel-rut to cosmic trajectory. Key roots: orbis (Latin: "ring, circle, disk"), (no established PIE root) (Proto-Indo-European: "the PIE origin of Latin orbis is uncertain; *h₃erbʰ- is speculative").