Orbe

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. An archaic spelling for a round, spherical body such as a globe or ball
2. A rounded object shaped like a sphere, used in older English writing for a globe
3. Describing a circular, ball-like form that was once written with this older spelling of a globe

Etymology: "Orbe" is an obsolete spelling of "orb", and the spelling itself tells the story: English borrowed the word from Old French, which took it from Latin "orbis", meaning "circle" or "orb." In Middle English the word was written "orbe" before the spelling settled into the shorter form we use now. The same Latin root gave us "orbit," a word that still carries the sense of something circling around a centre. The source also lists a second, entirely separate origin. Old French had its own adjective "orb," meaning "blind," which came from Latin "orbus," meaning "bereft" or "destitute." Because the two words were spelled identically in Old French, English speakers could easily confuse them, so the word's history is really two stories that happened to converge on one spelling. The sphere-shaped sense belongs to the Latin "orbis" line, and the blindness sense belongs to "orbus."