The story
- Ancient Greek · derived fromἐπίκυκλος
- Latin · derived fromepicyclus
- English todayepicycle
From Latin epicyclus, from Ancient Greek ἐπίκυκλος (epíkuklos), from ἐπί (epí, “upon”) + κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”). The ad hoc complication sense is a generalization from the archetype supplied by the Ptolemaic astronomy sense.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.