The story
Named after Nicolaus Copernicus by Austrian-British cosmologist Hermann Bondi in reference to his model of Copernican heliocentrism.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Copernican principle
Today it means: A principle which states that the location of humanity has no special significance (in constrast to traditional views that the Earth or Sun are located in the center of the Universe). Full definition →