Q:

How does drawing circles with a compass explain the etymology of 'universe'?

I don't understand the imagery in the quote below that I bolded:

The centerpiece of his research is the etymology or origin of the word “catholic.” While we do commonly use it to mean “universal,” Ong points out that the Latin or Roman Church (as distinct from the Orthodox or Eastern Church) had a word for universal in Latin — universalis. Ong asked:

If “universal” is the adequate meaning of “catholic,” why did the Latin church, which in its vernacular language had the word universalis, not use this word but rather borrowed from Greek the term katholikos instead, speaking of the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church (to put it into English) instead of the “one, holy, universal and apostolic church”?

Great question!
Ong explains that it has a theological and practical significance. The origin of “universal” in Latin likely comes from the two root-words unum (meaning “one”) and vertere (meaning “turn”). The image it evokes is something like an architect’s compass, which is used to make a circle around “one” central point.

Etymonline avers:

Latin universum "all things, everybody, all people, the whole world,"
  noun use of neuter of adjective universus "all together, all in one, whole, entire, relating to all,"
  literally "turned into one," from unus "one" (from PIE root *oi-no- "one, unique") + versus,
  past participle of vertere "to turn, turn back, be turned; convert, transform, translate; be changed"
  (from PIE root *wer- (2) "to turn, bend").

But what exactly does a pair of compasses 'turn around one central point'? It feels humdrum to turn an area of previously blank space on a paper around one central point?

A:

First, let me make sure that there is no confusion of terminology.
When they write "an architect’s compass", they do not mean this:

Instead, the mean this:

That is, here "compass" means a tool for drawing circles, not one for finding directions.

The image it evokes is something like an architect’s compass, which is used to make a circle around “one” central point.

It does not evoke that image in me.
The image I get is separate entities being converted into a single large entity, much like in the US motto e pluribus unum.
This image of drawing circles is a case of analysis taken too far from what is actually supported.
The circle drawing thing can be a helpful mental image in describing the meaning, but one should be careful not to treat it as the meaning of universum or words derived thereof.

