homunculus
pronunciation
How to pronounce homunculus in British English:
UK [həˈmʌŋkjələs]
How to pronounce homunculus in American English:
US [hoˈmʌŋkjələs, hə-]
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- Noun:
- a person who is very small but who is not otherwise deformed or abnormal
- a tiny fully formed individual that (according to the discredited theory of preformation) is supposed to be present in the sperm cell
Word Origin
- homunculus (n.)
- 1650s, from Latin homunculus, literally "little person," from homo (genitive hominis) "man, human being," the Latin word that means "man, person, a human being" (technically "male human," but in logical and scholastic writing "human being"), also "the human race, mankind," perhaps from PIE *(dh)ghomon-, literally "earthling," from *dhghem- "earth" (see chthonic; also compare human). With -culus, Latin diminutive suffix. Other Latin diminutives from homo included homullus, homuncio.
Example
- 1. What you want ? Homunculus .
- 2. Whoever heard of a homunculus fighting alongside an elf and orc ?
- 3. The homunculus in maxwell 's original thought experiment could sort the molecules of air found in two connected boxes according to their velocities .
- 4. So free publicity , and so pretty and coquettish and dignified , this is the first ran into my eyes and red river bottom thing , that homunculus and enchant .
- 5. This trend " mirrors similar gradients of decreasing tactile acuity , " the authors pointed out , and the results seem to back up models of the human body , such as the somatosensory homunculus , constructed from the amount of sensory cortex dedicated to various body parts .