| 释义 |
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.
c1200Ormin 17595 Mycrocossmós, þat nemmnedd iss Affterr Englisshe spæche Þe little werelld. 1426Lydg. 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’. 1477Norton Ord. Alch. v. in Ashm. (1652) 62 Wherefore amonge Creatures theis two alone Be called Microcosmus, Man and our Stone. 1570Dee Math. Pref. c iiij, The description of him, who is the Lesse world: and, from the beginning, called Microcosmus (that is, The Lesse World). 15971st Pt. Return fr. Parnass. i. i. 281 What an unmanerlie microcosme was this swine-faced clowne. 1603Florio Montaigne ii. xii. (1632) 301 They have thence had reason to name it [man's Nature] Microcosmos, or little world. 1604James I Counterbl. (Arb.) 102 The diuers parts of our Microcosme or little world within our selues. 1625Hart 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. 1663Gerbier Counsel 34 The Dimensions the Creator hath been pleased to give to the Microcosme Man. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. ii. 47 Among these, some studied the Microcosm of human Bodies, and searcht both Distemper and Medicin. 1768Foote 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. 1838–9Hallam 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. 1893P. 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’.
a1680Butler 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.)
1606B. 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.
1562Eden 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. 1587Greene Euphues to Philautus Wks. (Grosart) VI. 235 This citty was Microcosmos, a little Worlde, in respect of the Cytties of Greece. 1590in Tytler Hist. Scotl. (1864) IV. 179 This microcosme of Britain, separate from the continent world. 1791Bentham Panopt. i. Postscr. 79 That scene of clock-work regularity which it would be so easy to establish in so compact a microcosm. 1814Scott Wav. ii, The more judicious politicians of this microcosm. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey i. ii, The microcosm of a public school. 1845Ford 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.
1756B. Lynde Diaries (1880) 182, P. M. went to see microcosms. a1817R. 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.
1808Ackermann (title) The Microcosm of London, or London in Miniature. 1860All Year Round No. 52. 36 He intended his wardrobe-shop to be a satirical microcosm of Petty France. 1872Morley Voltaire vii. (ed. 2) 344 A microcosm of the whole battle. 1877F. 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.
1611Coryat Crudities 79 It [a mountain] is couered with a very Microcosme of clowdes. 1641Capt. 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.
a1644Quarles Sol. Recant. ch. xii. (1645) 58 Before the Sun, and Moon, and Stars appear Dark in thy Microcosmal Hemisphear. 1651Biggs New Disp. ⁋55 As if he were the microcosmall Councel of State's chief Physitian. |
