perpetuum mobile
/pəːˌpɛtjʊəm ˈməʊbɪleɪ
/ /ˈməʊbɪli/noun
1 Another term for perpetual motion.His preoccupations caricature Fedor's preoccupation with infinity by reducing what is for Fedor a kind of otherworldly transcendence to the pragmatism of a perpetuum mobile....
- Tito's perpetuum mobile kept rotating during the stagnant 1970s.
- We are amused by purported perpetuum mobile devices.
2 Music another term for moto perpetuo.Other 20th-century composers, for instance Honegger, Martin, and Prokofiev, wrote toccatas in perpetuum mobile style, following the example of Schumann....
- Op. 54 is in two movements, minuet and a kind of perpetuum mobile, often referred to as a toccata: its form and style can't be found elsewhere in Beethoven.
Origin
Latin, literally 'continuously moving (thing)', on the pattern of primum mobile.