OBLATE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Oblate

... plain, our horizon is always a circle; either of which marks is incompatible with any other than a globular form. I assert further, that the earth is that particular kind of a globe which is termed an oblate spheroid; because it is found by measurement in the direction of the meridian, that the length on the surface of the earth which subtends a given angle at its centre, diminishes as we recede from the equator and approach the poles. But these propositions, ...

— A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive • John Stuart Mill