nepotism_(nepotizm)

[= F. népotisme = Sp. Pg. It. nepotismo, 3969 Neptune (nep'tūn), n. [= F. Neptune = Sp. Pg. Neptuno = It. Nettuno , Rom , myth ., the god of the sea, who came to be identified by the Romans themselves with the Greek Poseidon, whose attributes were transferred by the poets to the ancient Latin deity. In art Neptune is usu- ally represented as a bearded man of stately presence, with the trident as his chief attribute, and the horse and the dolphin as symbols. 2. Figuratively, the ocean. Ye that on the sands with printle foot Do chase the ebbing Neptune . Shak., Tempest, v. 1. 35. IMG:content-1309.png:[blocks in formation] nert, nerelt, a. Galt, The Provost, p. 201. (Jamie son.) Nearer. Chaucer. known planet of the solar system, and the third form of neart. 3. In her., same as Triton.-4. The outermost nere2t, adv., prep., and a. A Middle English in volume and ma , though quite invisible to nere3t, n. A Middle English form of neer2. the naked eye. It was discovered in the autumn of neret. A Middle English contraction of ne 1846. Uranus, the planet next to Neptune, revolving about the sun in eighty-four years, was discovered in 1781; but were, were not. observations of it as a fixed star were scattered through neret, adv. An obsolete contracted form of the eighteenth century. In 1821 Bouvard found that the never . observations of Uranus could not be satisfied by any theory based on the gravitation of known bodies, and hinted at an undiscovered planet. During the following twenty years further observations satisfied astronomers that such a planet must exist. To find where it could be was the prob- lem which two mathematicians, J. C. Adams in England and U. J. J. Leverrier in France, set themselves to solve by mathematics. The calculations of Leverrier a igned the boundaries of a not very large region within which the unknown planet might be. In consequence of the indica- tions of Adams, the astronomer Challis observed the planet Neptune August 4th and 12th, 1846, but, neglecting to work up his observations, failed to recognize it as a planet; while, in consequence of the indications of Leverrier, Galle of Berlin discovered Neptune September 23d, 1846. The orbit of the new planet, having been determined from direct observations, was found to differ exce ively from the predictions in all its elements; so much so that Lever- rier declared these elements "incompatible with the na- ture of the irregular perturbations of Uranus." The dis- tance from the sun was 30 times instead of 36 times that of the earth, as predicted; and the orbit, instead of being more elliptical than that of any planet except Mercury, was in fact the most circular of all. When Neptune was discovered by Dr. Galle it was only 1o from the predicted place; but this would not have been so at the epoch to which the calculations referred, and there was nothing in their nature to render them particularly accurate for 1846, so that this coincidence must be regarded as in great mea- sure a happy accident, such as would occur by mere chance once in October, in 180 1846, times. by La ell. A satellite Its to period Neptune of revolution was detected is 5 days, 21 hours, and 8 minutes, and its maximum elongation 18". The ma of Neptune, having been calculated from these data, was found to be 15400 that of the sun, against predicted values nearly twice as great. With the ma so ascertained, the perturbing action upon Uranus was calculated, and found to satisfy the observations of hypothesis had done. This was because the real action of Neptune upon the orbit of Uranus was of a different kind from what it had been a umed to be, those terms of the mathematical expre ions which had been a umed to be the principal ones being really insignificant, and those which had been neglected as insignificant being really the controlling ones. The name Neptune was conferred by Encke, Leverrier having signified that he wished it called by his own name. The diameter of Neptune is 37,000 miles. Its distance from the sun is about 2,800,000,000 miles, and its period of revolution about 164 years. Nep [ Neptunius , to aggrandize family by to nephews or relatives. To this humour of Nepotism Rome owes its present splen Add is on . dour. +-ist.] I. n. 1†. A navigator; a seaman. Let the brave enginer, fine Daedal ist, skilful Neptunist, be respected. Harvey, Pierce's Supererogation, marvelous Vulcanist, and every Merc uri all occupationer .. Were they to submit. to be accused of Nepotism by Nepotists ? The real disgrace would have been to have submitted to this. Sydney Smith , To Archd. Singleton. ( Davies .) neppy (nep'i), a. [ Manuf . , I. 748. neptet, n. A Middle English form of nep1 . Nepticula (nep-tik'ū-lä), n. [NL. (Von Heyden, 1842), nepticula , granddaughter, dim. of neptis , a granddaughter: see niece .] A genus of microlepidopterous moths, giving name to the family Nepticulida. There are several species, as N. aurelia , N. splendi ima , and N. mic rother i ell a, all among the smallest of the tineids. The larvæ, as far as known, are all leaf-miners.