phasis
nounEtymology From Late Latin phasis, or its source, Ancient Greek φάσις (phásis, “appearance”).
1
Obsolete A phase (of the moon, a planet etc.).
- [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
Obsolete Any phase or aspect of something.
- He o'er the seas shall love or fame pursue, / And other Months, another Phasis view […].1697, Marcus Manilius, translated by Thomas Creech, Astronomica:
- 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
Archaic The first appearance of the new moon.