obliquity

That represents Earth’s axial tilt, which astronomers call its obliquity, relative to the plane of its nearly circular orbit around the sun.

Such a slouch, or obliquity, gives us our seasons.

“Your memory is true, friend John. I should have remembered. And yet it is this very obliquity of thought and memory which makes mental disease such a fascinating study. Perhaps I may gain more knowledge out of the folly of this madman than I shall from the teaching of the most wise. Who knows?”

It’s not a question of subtlety, which the stage can accommodate, but obliquity, which feels like an evasion of theater’s confrontational power.

This led to the recognition of regular changes in key astronomical parameters: the eccentricity of Earth’s orbit around the Sun, and the obliquity and precession of Earth’s rotational axis.