Today, I bought a copy of Nicolaus Copernicus’ book, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, in an edition edited by Stephen Hawking. The original 1543 book helped inspire people to give up the idea that the Earth was the center of the Universe, and that the Earth circles the Sun, not visa versa.
As I understand it, the change was such a shock and so deeply altered the way people saw the hierarchy of things, in both the heavens and on Earth, that for centuries, whenever people talked about similar upheavals, they would call them another Revolutions, meaning Copernicus’ book. After a while, the association of the term with the book got forgotten — hence the word “revolution”.
Trouble is, in the original title, De revolutionibus orbium colestium, the word means “spinning around and around in circles,” as in, “the going around of the celestial orbs.” So the root word of “revolution” is not “revolt,” it’s “revolve” — to wind up exactly where you started and have to do it all over again.
And all too often, that’s how revolutions have gone, at least outside of science. You wind up with the same cast of characters, at best, and you have to stage another revolution, over and over and over.
I swear, the fact that this is Tax Day is PURE COINCIDENCE!