atomy
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈætəmi/
Forms: form: atomy
form: atomies
Etymology: See atom.
Senses: examples: text: And thicker then in sunne are Atomies,
Flew bullets, fier, and slaughtered dead mens cries.
ref: 1595, Gervase Markham, The most Honorable Tragedie of Sir Richard Grinuile, Knight,:
text: That eyes, that are the frail’st and softest things
Who shut their coward gates on atomies
Should be call’d tyrants, butchers, murderers!
ref: 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]:
text: 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;
ref: 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:
text: […] the crew
Seemed in that light, like atomies to dance
Within a sunbeam;
ref: 1824, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Triumph of Life”, in Posthumous Poems, London: John and Henry L. Hunt, page 91:
text: 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!
glosses: A floating mote or speck of dust.
examples: text: Lastly, it [an Element] is the least part or Atomie of that thing which is made, or proceedeth from it.
ref: 1610, Gervase Markham, chapter 2, in Markhams Maister-Peece, London: Nicholas Okes, page 4:
text: 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.
ref: 1633, John Donne, “An Anatomie of the World”, in Poems, London: John Marriott, page 242:
text: […] praise thy God,
O be not selfe-conceited, least his rod
Doe bruise thee into Atomies;
ref: 1641, Thomas Herbert, An Elegie upon the Death of Thomas, Earle of Strafford, London, page 6:
synonyms: atom
glosses: An indivisible particle.
examples: text: […] 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;
ref: 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]:
text: Was there a "delicate atomy" of minute dimensions and pale complexion, he forthwith strutted a hardy Highlander.
ref: 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 71:
text: “Hey!” he said, “why, it’s Tom! I suppose you have come here to laugh at me, you spiteful little atomy?”
ref: 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:
glosses: A tiny being; a very small person.