microcosm
(ˈmaɪkrəʊkɒz(ə)m)
In 5 mycrocosme, 5–7 microcosme. Also occas. in L. and quasi-Gr. forms microcosmus, -cosmos, 3 Ormin mycrocossmós.
[ad. F. microcosme (14th c.), ad. med.L. mīcrocosmus, mīcroscosmus, ad. late Gr. µῑκρὸς κόσµος (µῑκρός small, κόσµος world). Cf. macrocosm.]
1. The ‘little world’ of human nature; man viewed as an epitome of the ‘great world’ or universe.
| c 1200 Ormin 17595 Mycrocossmós, þat nemmnedd iss Affterr Englisshe spæche Þe little werelld. 1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 12370 Merveylle nat..That thow be let in thy vyage,..Syth ‘Mycrocosme’, men the calle; And microcosme ys a word Wych clerkys calle ‘the lasse world’. 1477 Norton Ord. Alch. v. in Ashm. (1652) 62 Wherefore amonge Creatures theis two alone Be called Microcosmus, Man and our Stone. 1570 Dee Math. Pref. c iiij, The description of him, who is the Lesse world: and, from the beginning, called Microcosmus (that is, The Lesse World). 1597 1st Pt. Return fr. Parnass. i. i. 281 What an unmanerlie microcosme was this swine-faced clowne. 1603 Florio Montaigne ii. xii. (1632) 301 They have thence had reason to name it [man's Nature] Microcosmos, or little world. 1604 James I Counterbl. (Arb.) 102 The diuers parts of our Microcosme or little world within our selues. 1625 Hart Anat. Ur. i. i. 2 God..at last made man, that microcosme, or little world, as it were an epitome or abridgment of this great vniuersall world. 1663 Gerbier Counsel 34 The Dimensions the Creator hath been pleased to give to the Microcosme Man. 1727 De Foe Syst. Magic i. ii. 47 Among these, some studied the Microcosm of human Bodies, and searcht both Distemper and Medicin. 1768 Foote Devil on 2 Sticks i. Wks. 1799 II. 243 Woman..is a microcosm, and rightly to rule her requires as great talents as to govern a state. 1838–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. III. iii. iii. §19. 14 The doctrine of a constant analogy between universal nature, or the macrocosm, and that of man, or the microcosm. 1893 P. Kropotkin in 19th Cent. Aug. 252 The molecule thus becomes a particle of the universe on a microscopic scale—a microcosmos which lives the same life. |
¶ b. Jocularly used for ‘body’.
| a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) II. 83 He puts both Ends of his Microcosm in Motion, by making Legs at one End, and combing his Peruque at the other. |
¶ nonce-use. (See quot.)
| 1606 B. Jonson Masques, Hymenæi B 1 b, Here out of a Microcosme, or Globe (figuring Man)..issued forth the first Masque. |
2. In extended sense, applied to a community or other complex unity regarded as presenting an epitome of the world, or as constituting ‘a little world’ in itself.
| 1562 Eden Let. to Sir W. Cecil in Decades (Arb.) p. xliv, An experiment, wrought by arte to the similitude of the vniuersall frame of the worlde..and maye therfore in my iudgement more woorthely be cauled Michrocosmos, then eyther man or any other creature. 1587 Greene Euphues to Philautus Wks. (Grosart) VI. 235 This citty was Microcosmos, a little Worlde, in respect of the Cytties of Greece. 1590 in Tytler Hist. Scotl. (1864) IV. 179 This microcosme of Britain, separate from the continent world. 1791 Bentham Panopt. i. Postscr. 79 That scene of clock-work regularity which it would be so easy to establish in so compact a microcosm. 1814 Scott Wav. ii, The more judicious politicians of this microcosm. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey i. ii, The microcosm of a public school. 1845 Ford Handbk. Spain i. 338 [Gibraltar] this microcosmus where all creeds and nations meet. |
b. Adopted as the name of a travelling mechanical exhibition in the 18th c.
| 1756 B. Lynde Diaries (1880) 182, P. M. went to see microcosms. a 1817 R. L. Edgeworth Mem. (1820) I. 110 By accident I was invited [in 1765] to see the Microcosm, a mechanical exhibition, which was then frequented by every body at Chester. |
c. A ‘miniature’ representation of.
| 1808 Ackermann (title) The Microcosm of London, or London in Miniature. 1860 All Year Round No. 52. 36 He intended his wardrobe-shop to be a satirical microcosm of Petty France. 1872 Morley Voltaire vii. (ed. 2) 344 A microcosm of the whole battle. 1877 F. G. Heath Fern W. 105 That microcosm of the Fern World, the case, or pot. |
¶ d. In the 17th c. sometimes used (? ignorantly) for: A ‘world’, huge mass.
| 1611 Coryat Crudities 79 It [a mountain] is couered with a very Microcosme of clowdes. 1641 Capt. A. Mervin in Rushw. Hist. Coll. iii. (1692) I. 216 Let then that Microcosm of Letters Patents..rise up in Judgment. |
† 3. Alch. The philosopher's stone. Obs.
| 1477 [see 1]. |
Hence † microˈcosmal a., pertaining to or of the nature of a microcosm.
| a 1644 Quarles Sol. Recant. ch. xii. (1645) 58 Before the Sun, and Moon, and Stars appear Dark in thy Microcosmal Hemisphear. 1651 Biggs New Disp. ¶55 As if he were the microcosmall Councel of State's chief Physitian. |