POLE (πόλος, a hinge), was applied formerly to the extremities of the axis of the celestial sphere in the ancient astronomy; and hence it has come to signify the extremities of the axis on which the earth turns. From this primary signification all the various uses of the word have been derived. It came to be applied to those points which would become poles of rotation if any great circle of the sphere became the equator. In Physics it signifies, in general, any tendency towards polarity; and in Geometry it is equally loose.