▪ I. atomy1
(ˈætəmɪ)
[f. anatomy by aphæresis of an-, due to its being taken for the indef. article, as, by similar treatment of a-, the forms natomy, nathomy, were also in early use. In the concrete and popular senses of the word this contracted form was formerly quite established; but is now only illiterate or jocular.]
1. An anatomical preparation, an anatomized body; esp. a skeleton.
| 1728 Gay Beggar's Op. ii. i, He is among the Otamys at Surgeon's Hall. 1755 Smollett Quix. (1803) IV. 148 My bones..will be taken up smooth, and white, and bare as an atomy. 1823 F. Cooper Pioneer xiii. 146 His sides..looked just like an atomy, ribs and all. |
2. An emaciated or withered living body, a walking skeleton.
| 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, v. iv. 33 [Quarto; folio 1623 has ‘anatomy’] You starved blood-hound!.. Thou atomy, thou! 1681 R. Knox Hist. Ceylon 124 Consumed to an Atomy, having nothing left but skin to cover his Bones. 1864 Mrs. Lloyd Ladies Polcarrow 149 ‘We should have wasted to atomies if we had a-stayed in that terrible bad place any longer,’ said Ursula. |
b. fig. or transf. of things.
| 1848 Dickens Dombey 86 Withered atomies of teaspoons. |
▪ II. atomy2
(ˈætəmɪ)
Also 7 attomé, -mye.
[f. atomi, pl. of atomus (formerly in learned use; see atom n.), by treating it as an English singular. Perhaps influenced also by atomy1 2. Cf.
1596 Fitz-Geffrey Sir F. Drake (1881) 99 Anatomize me into atomies. 1611 Barksted Hiren (1876) 86 The kingly Eagle strikes through Atomie, Those little moates that barre him from the Sun.]
1. An atom, a mote.
| 1595 Markham Sir R. Grinuile, Thicker then in sunne are Atomies, Flew bullets. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. ii. 245 It is as easie to count Atomies as to resolue the propositions of a Louer. 1620 Swetnam Arraigned (1880) 37, I would hew thy flesh Smaller then Attomés. 1879 Tennyson Lover's T. 65 A broad And solid beam of isolated light, Crowded with driving atomies. |
b. fig.
| 1614 Overbury A Wife, &c. (1638) 266 Circumstances are the Atomies of Policie. |
2. A diminutive or tiny being, a mite, a pigmy.
| 1591 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. iv. 57 Drawne with a teeme of little Atomies Ouer mens noses. 1605 P. Woodhouse Flea (1877) 19 If with this atomye I should contend. 1863 Kingsley Water Bab. (1878) viii. 369, I suppose you have come here to laugh at me, you spiteful little atomy. |