α. 1500s–1600s animalcle.
β. 1600s–1800s animalculum (plural animalcula).
γ. 1600s– animalcule.
animalculen.
/ˌanᵻˈmalkjuːl/, U.S. /ˌænəˈmælˌkjul/ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > animal body > [noun] > small animal
oryxa1382
small deer14..
mite1594
animalcule1599
insect1601
animalillio1647
minim of nature1667
animalcula1716
beastie1765
beastling1789
thumb1854
1599 A. M. tr. O. Gaebelkhover Bk. Physicke 131/1 For the Laske..Boyle the Liver of any animalcle [Ger. Thier], decocte the same, & cause him to eate therof.
1653 H. More Antidote against Atheisme ii. xii. 94 The assault of Flyes and Gnats, and such like bold Animalcula.
1692 J. Ray Wisdom of God (ed. 2) i. 134 The catching of these Animalcules [sc. Beetles].
1719 J. Chamberlayne tr. B. Nieuwentyt Relig. Philosopher III. xxv. §10 The next biggest Animalculum or Insect.
1728 Mem. Eng. Officer 234 The horrid Desolation which attended the Visitation of those Animalcula [locusts].
1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus iii. x. 71/2 The basest of created animalcules, the Spider itself, has a spinning-jenny..within its head.
1848 J. R. Lowell Biglow Papers 1st Ser. vi. 81 That animalcule there, in the pea-jacket, is Louis Philippe, just landed on the coast of England.
1855 F. K. Robinson Gloss. Yorks. Words 133 Porriwiggles, tadpoles and other tortuous animalcula in water.
1876 D. Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. (ed. 6) iii. 67 The coral animalcule rears its polypidom.
2.
a. Any microscopic aquatic organism, including minute animals (such as rotifers) as well as protozoans and other motile single-celled organisms. Frequently with distinguishing word. Now rare in technical use.bear, moss, slipper, sun, wheel animalcule, etc.: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > animal body > [noun] > small animal > visible only through microscope
animalcule1677
animalcula1716
1677 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 12 821 These animalcula or living Atoms did move.
1691 J. Ray Wisdom of God 119 Those Animalcula not long since discovered in pepper-water by Mr. Lewenhoek of Delft in Holland.
1745 J. T. Needham Acct. New Microsc. Discov. Introd. 3 The minutest microscopical Animalcule.
1794 Monthly Rev. Mar. 328 His first class..is distinguished by the appellation of Cryptozoa, containing animalcula which cannot be discerned without a microscope.
1862 H. Holland Ess. 84 The appearance of animalcule life in various artificial compounds.
1888 G. Rolleston & W. H. Jackson Forms Animal Life (ed. 2) 256 Amœba Proteus.., the Proteus animalcule..is to be found in the upper layers of soft ooze at the bottom of still clear lakes, ponds, and ditches.
1941 R. Headstrom Adventures with Microscope xxiii. 82 Paramecium..looks very much like a slipper, sometimes being called, because of its shape, the ‘slipper animalcule’.
1974 A. Dillard Pilgrim at Tinker Creek vii. 120 If I carry the cup home and let the sludge settle, the animalcules sort themselves out.
2002 P. Herring Biol. Deep Ocean 279 (appendix) Rotifera (wheel animalcules). These little planktonic animals have at their heads a characteristic circlet of two rings of cilia.
b. A spermatozoon; (also) the (supposed) preformed embryo within a spermatozoon. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > reproductive substances or cells > [noun] > sperm > spermatozoon
animalcule1686
animalcula1716
zoosperm1824
spermatozoon1836
spermatozoid1861
sperm1904
nemasperm1922
1686 Philos. Trans. 1685 (Royal Soc.) 15 1284 A Microscope (which I had not then with me) might..have confirmed it, if those Animalcula are to be found in it, which are in the Masculine Sperm of Fish, and other living Creatures.
1693 J. Ray Three Physico-theol. Disc. (ed. 2) i. iv. 61 The new opinion of Mr. Lewenhoek, that all Animals proceed from an Insect or Animalcule in the Male-sperm, among other Reasons, I am less inclinable to, because of the necessary loss of a multitude, I might say infinity, of them, which seems not agreeable to the Wisdom and Providence of Nature.
1746 Gentleman's Mag. May 237/1 I find that one cubic decimal line of a Rhenish foot in the milt of a carp contains above 244,140,625 seminal animalcula.
1790 W. Smellie Philos. Nat. Hist. 117 The animalcular system..makes the germs, or rudiments of animals, reside in the spermatic animalcules.
1879 tr. E. Haeckel Evol. Man I. 37 The Ovulists (Ovists) or Believers in Eggs..maintained that the egg was the real animal germ, and that the seminal animalcules..only gave the impulse which caused the unfolding of the egg.
1928 C. S. Whitehead & C. A. Hoff Ethical Sex Relations (new ed.) i. i. 31 That these seminal animalcules have actual life and vitality, is also believed.
2004 Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Sept. 5/1 It [sc. the penis] produced semen that was full of little animalcules which seemed to redound to the organ's glory.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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