| 释义 |
microcosmic, a.|maɪkrəʊˈkɒzmɪk|
[f. microcosm + -ic.]
1. Of or pertaining to a microcosm or ‘little world’; of the nature of a microcosm.
1816G. S. Faber Orig. Pagan Idol. III. 281 The imitative Caer-Sidee represented the microcosmic Ship resting on the top of the mountain. 1871B. Taylor Faust iii. I. 65 Man, that microcosmic fool. 1893Huxley Evol. & Ethics 13 The microcosmic atom should have found the illimitable macrocosm guilty.
2. microcosmic salt [= L. sal microcosmicus, Bergmann Opusc. 1773 (ed. 1780) II. 12]: a phosphate of soda and ammonia (HNaNH4PO4 + 4H2O), originally derived from human urine, and much used as a blow-pipe flux. † microcosmic acid: phosphoric acid as obtained from this salt.
1783Withering tr. Bergmann's Outl. Min. 36 A precipitate of cobalt..which makes a blue glass with borax or microcosmic salt. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XIV. 629–30 Acid of Phosphorus. This acid, called also the microcosmic acid, has already been described. 1816Encycl. Perth. V. 566/1 Urine contains the fusible salt of urine, or microcosmic salt. 1902H. A. Miers Mineral. 271 The treatment in the bead of microcosmic salt. |