Dictionary

pyrocentric en · ADJ

Etymology

From pyro- + centric.

Meanings

1. Of or relating to the Pythagorean astronomical system, which posited that the Earth, Moon, Sun, and planets orbit an invisible "Central Fire".
   • Apollyon, who, as god of the sun, has a certain stake in the matter, teaches the Prior the truth of what the Greeks, Pythagoras' disciples, knew many years before— the nature of the heliocentric (or pyrocentric) planetary system. 1967, Gerald Cornelius Monsman, Pater's Portraits: Mythic Pattern in the Fiction of Walter Pater, pages 187–188:
   • To Pythagoras himself has been frequently ascribed the idea of a pyrocentric Kosmos—with worlds revolving round a central sun—according to the Copernican, or, to speak more accurately, the Newtonian scheme. 1874, Bernard H. Becker, Scientific London, page 302:
   • All the same, some 2000 years later Copernicus would refer to Philolaus' pyrocentric world model for support of the idea that the Earth is a circularly moving planet. 2007, Helge S. Kragh, Conceptions of Cosmos: From Myths to the Accelerating Universe: A History of Cosmology, page 16:
2. Centering fire as a key force in nature, civilization, etc.
   • The result of that sojourn was a book called The Ice, a meditation on the planet's southernmost continent which—from Pyne's admittedly pyrocentric viewpoint—is also one of the few nearly fireless places, oceans aside, on the face of the earth. 1991, William Cronon, "Forward: Eucalypt History", in Stephen J. Pyne, Burning Bush: A Fire History of Australia (1998 ed.), page x
   • The prominent scholar of fire, Stephen Pyne (2018) argues we are pyrophilic creatures, immersed in pyrocentric civilisations whose 'new combustion regime based on fossil biomass' has resulted in a pyric transition that has not only shaped our technologies, mobility and habitation patterns, but also our values and relationships with landscapes. 2020, Jason Alexandra, “Burning Bush and Disaster Justice in Victoria, Australia: Can Regional Planning Prevent Brushfires Becoming Disasters?”, in Anna Lukasiewicz, Claudia Baldwin, editors, Natural Hazards and Disaster Justice: Challenges for Australia and Its Neighbours, page 77:
   • In contrast, the pyrocentric hypothesis holds that fire is a major consumer shaping the patterns, structure, and composition of vegetation. 2019, William J. Bond, Open Ecosystems: Ecology and Evolution Beyond the Forest Edge, page 100:

Forms