Concept of the Earth Revolving—Axially and Orbitally—Around the Sun

The term [revolution] derives from the Latin substantive revolutio, which was unknown in classical Latin but was used in the early Middle Ages by St. Augustine and other Christian writers.

Translated into Italian as rivoluzione in the early Renaissance and then into French and English as revolution, the term initially meant the return of a moving object to its place of origin—particularly the movement of celestial bodies around the earth.

Copernicans used it increasingly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to describe their unsettling new concept of the earth revolving—axially and orbitally—around the sun.

James H. Billington
Fire In The Minds Of Men