ONLINE
ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY:
- 1909, from Fr. stratosphère, lit. "sphere of layers," coined by French meteorologist Léon-Philippe Teisserenc de Bort (1855-1913) from L. stratus "a spreading out" (from pp. stem of sternere "to spread out;" see structure) + Fr. -sphère, as in atmosphère. The region where the temperature increases or remains steady as you go higher. [An earlier stratosphere, attested in English 1908 and coined in German 1901, was a geological term for part of the Earth's crust. It is now obsolete.]
- sphere (n.)
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1530s, restored spelling of M.E. spere (c.1300) "space,
conceived as a hollow globe about the world," from O.Fr. espere
(13c.), from L. sphaera "globe, ball, celestial sphere,"
from Gk. sphaira "globe, ball," of unknown origin.
Sense of "ball, body of globular form" is from late 14c. Medieval astronomical meaning "one of the 8 (later 10) concentric, transparent, hollow globes believed to revolve around the earth and carry the heavenly bodies" is from late 14c.; the supposed harmonious sound they made rubbing against one another was the music of the spheres (late 14c.). Meaning "range of something" is first recorded c.1600 (e.g. sphere of influence, 1885, originally in reference to Anglo-German colonial rivalry in Africa). A spherical number (1640s) is one whose powers always terminate in the same digit as the number itself (5,6, and 10 are the only ones).
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