precession
n.
5ME < LL praecessio < L praecedere, to PRECEDE6
1 the act of preceding; precedence
2 Astronomy short for PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOXES
3 Mech. an effect exhibited by a spinning body, as a top, when an applied torque tends to change the direction of its rotational axis, causing this axis generally to describe a cone and to turn at right angles to the direction of the torque
pre[ces4sion[al
adj.
From the Just So Stores, The Elephant's Child
"One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes this 'satiable
Elephant's Child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before. He asked,
'What does the Crocodile have for dinner?' Then everybody said, 'Hush!' in a loud and
dretful tone, and they spanked him immediately and directly, without stopping, for a long
time. "

"That very next morning, when there was nothing left of the Equinoxes, because the
Precession had preceded according to precedent, this 'satiable Elephant's Child took a
hundred pounds of bananas (the little short red kind), and a hundred pounds of
sugar-cane (the long purple kind), and seventeen melons (the greeny-crackly kind), and
said to all his dear families, 'Goodbye. I am going to the great grey-green, greasy
Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the Crocodile has for
dinner.' And they all spanked him once more for luck, though he asked them most
politely to stop. "

I was glad my kids did not demand that I explain about the Precession of the Equinoxes.