Omphalos

Word of the Day for Thursday, May 17, 2012

omphalos \OM-fuh-luhs\, noun:

1. The central point.
2. The navel; umbilicus.
3. Greek Antiquity. A stone in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, thought to mark the centre of the earth.

To that incurable romantic the Trenton hovel was omphalos, the hub of existence, the centre of mass.
-- Ellen Queen, Halfway House

Yes; but if not of the earth, for earth's tenant Jerusalem was the omphalos of mortality.
-- Thomas De Quincey, Suspiria de Profundies

From Greek, omphalos did not enter English until the 1850s when Thomas De Quincey used it in his work Suspiria de Profundis. It literally meant "navel."

Thanks to: http://www.dictionary.com/