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zombola
06-15-2015, 11:19 AM
omphalos


\ OM-fuh-luhs \ , noun;
1.
The central point.


2.
The navel; umbilicus.

3.
Greek Antiquity. A stone in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, thought to mark the center of the earth.



Quotes:
To that incurable romantic the Trenton hovel was omphalos , the hub of existence, the center of mass.
-- Ellen Queen, Halfway House

Yes; but if not of the earth, for earth's tenant Jerusalem was the omphalos of mortality.
-- Thomas De Quincey, Suspiria de Profundies



Origin:
From Greek, omphalos did not enter English until the 1850s when Thomas De Quincey used it in his work Suspiria de Profundis. It literally meant "navel."