# atomy
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈætəmi/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Etymology 1

See atom.

#### Noun

atomy (plural atomy or atomies)
* (archaic) A floating mote or speck of dust.
** 1595, Gervase Markham, The most Honorable Tragedie of Sir Richard Grinuile, Knight,‎:And thicker then in sunne are Atomies, Flew bullets, fier, and slaughtered dead mens cries.
** c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:That eyes, that are the frail’st and softest things Who shut their coward gates on atomies Should be call’d tyrants, butchers, murderers!
** 1622, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in The Second Part, or A Continuance of Poly-Olbion from the Eighteenth Song. […], London: […] Augustine Mathewes for Iohn Marriott, Iohn Grismand, and Thomas Dewe, →OCLC, page 109:Thinke not that all betwixt the Wherpoole, and the Sprat, I goe about to name, that were to take in hand, The Atomy to tell, or to cast vp the sand;
** 1824, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Triumph of Life”, in Posthumous Poems‎, London: John and Henry L. Hunt, page 91:[…] the crew Seemed in that light, like atomies to dance Within a sunbeam;
** 1880, Richard Francis Burton, The Kasidah, London: H. S. Nichols, 1894, p. 7,
    The marvel is that man can smile dreaming his ghostly ghastly dream;—
    Better the heedless atomy that buzzes in the morning beam!
* (archaic) An indivisible particle.
    Synonym: atom
** 1610, Gervase Markham, chapter 2, in Markhams Maister-Peece‎, London: Nicholas Okes, page 4:Lastly, it [an Element] is the least part or Atomie of that thing which is made, or proceedeth from it.
** 1633, John Donne, “An Anatomie of the World”, in Poems‎, London: John Marriott, page 242:And freely men confesse that this world’s spent, When in the Planets, and the firmament They seeke so many new; they see that this Is crumbled out againe to his Atomies.
** 1641, Thomas Herbert, An Elegie upon the Death of Thomas, Earle of Strafford‎, London, page 6:[…] praise thy God, O be not selfe-conceited, least his rod Doe bruise thee into Atomies;
* (archaic) A tiny being; a very small person.
** c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:[…] she [Queen Mab] comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the fore-finger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep;
** 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 71:Was there a "delicate atomy" of minute dimensions and pale complexion, he forthwith strutted a hardy Highlander.
** 1862 August – 1863 March, Charles Kingsley, “(please specify the page)”, in The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby, London, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., published 1863, →OCLC, pages 331-332:“Hey!” he said, “why, it’s Tom! I suppose you have come here to laugh at me, you spiteful little atomy?”

### Etymology 2

Rebracketing of anatomy (“skeleton”) as an atomy.

#### Noun

atomy (plural atomies)
* (archaic) A skeleton. [from 16th c.]
** c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv]:Hostess Quickly. Ay, come, you starv’d bloodhound. Doll Tearsheet. Goodman death, goodman bones! Hostess Quickly. Thou atomy, thou! Doll Tearsheet. Come, you thin thing! come, you rascal!
** 1728, John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera, Dublin: George Risk et al., Act II, Scene 1, p. 67,
    I could not save him from those fleaing Rascals the Surgeons; and now, poor Man, he is among the Otamys [sic] at Surgeon's Hall.
** 1769, Tobias Smollett, The History and Adventures of an Atom‎, volume 1, London: Robinson and Roberts, page 2:I was now thrown into a violent perturbation of spirit; for I never could behold an atomy without fear and trembling, even when I knew it was no more than a composition of dry bones;
** 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, book the first (Poverty), page 28:[…] a bedstead with four bare atomies of posts, each terminating in a spike, as if for the dismal accommodation of lodgers who might prefer to impale themselves.
** 1866, Christina Rossetti, “The Prince’s Progress”, in The Prince’s Progress and Other Poems‎, London: Macmillan, page 11:The veriest atomy he looked, With grimy fingers clutching and crooked, Tight skin, a nose all bony and hooked, And a shaking, sharp, suspicious way;

### Etymology 3

From atom +‎ -y.

#### Adjective

atomy (comparative more atomy, superlative most atomy)
* Resembling a tiny particle; made up of tiny particles.
** 1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 398:[…] noble Lesser Alps which were clothed in rich velvety green all the way up and had little atomy Swiss homes perched upon grassy benches along their mist-dimmed heights.
** 1894, Richard Henry Savage, The Princess of Alaska, Chicago and New York: Rand, McNally, Book 2, Chapter 8, p. 235,
    […] the atomy speck, hurled through space, which we mortals call the world!—
** 1919, George Rostrevor Hamilton, “Thoughts”, in Escape and Fantasy: Poems‎, New York: Macmillan, page 19:Things that flit in the sky or creep In the atomy dust, or swarm in the deep,

##### See also

* atomic

### References

* ↑ John Bullokar, An English Expositer Teaching the Interpretation of the Hardest Words Vsed in our Language, London: John Legatt, 1616: “Atomie. A mote flying in the sunne. Any thing so small, that it cannot bee made lesse.”
* ↑ Robert Cawdrey, A Table Alphabeticall […] of Hard Vsuall English Wordes, London: Edmund Weaver, 1609: “atomie, […] a thing so small that it cannot bée deuided.”

## Polish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /aˈtɔ.mɘ/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ɔmɘ
* Syllabification: a‧to‧my

### Noun

atomy m
* nominative plural of atom
* accusative plural of atom
* vocative plural of atom