phasis

plural phases

1. obsoleteA phase (of the moon, a planet etc.).First known use 17th–19th c.

   [A]s the same face of the moon always is turned to the earth, the lunar tides must be permanent, and if the solid parts of the moon be spherical, must always cover the phasis next to us.

   1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, page 119

2. obsoleteAny phase or aspect of something.First known use 17th–19th c.

   He o'er the seas shall love or fame pursue, / And other Months, another Phasis view […].

   1697, Marcus Manilius, translated by Thomas Creech, Astronomica

   1 more example

   In popular language Feeling is not always synonymous with State of Consciousness; being often taken more peculiarly for those states which are conceived as belonging to the sensitive, or to the emotional, phasis of our nature […].

   1882, John Stuart Mill, A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive, 8th edition

3. archaicThe first appearance of the new moon.First known use 19th c.

1. The Rioni river, as it is called in classical sources.

   Poti.* A fortified harbour at the mouth of the river Rion, the ancient Phasis, on the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea. The town is composed of a collection of wooden houses surrounded by a forest.

   1868, “Route 20: London to Tiflis […] ”, in Handbook for Travellers in Russia, Poland, and Finland, 2nd edition, London: John Murray, page 320