atomy means A tiny particle; an atom, a mote, a speck. It carries an Arena rating of 1649, earned across 31 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, atomy ranks #2,337 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,783 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #2,859 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,911 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words.
atomy is pronounced /ˈætəmi/.
Why “atomy” is a great word
ATOMY — [Noun, Adjective] A minute particle, atom, or mote; as an adjective, of or resembling such tiny particles. From a singular use of the Latin plural atomī (of atomus, "atom"), from Ancient Greek ἄτομος (átomos, "indivisible"), from ᾰ̓- (ă-, "not") + τέμνω (témnō, "to cut"). First attested in the 1580s-1590s. Unlike "atom," which anchors a precise, scientific reality, or "mote," which specifies a visible speck of dust, "atomy" is an archaic, literary drift—any fragment of the infinitesimal. It is the last grain of sand in an emptied hourglass, the microscopic flakes of skin caught in a slant of light, the constituent dust of a forgotten ancestor. It names the indivisible that was long ago divided, a quiet testament to all that has crumbled finer than language can hold.
Etymology
A variant of atomi, the plural of atomus (“hypothetical particle posited as an ultimate and indivisible component of matter; mote of dust in a sunbeam”) treated as a singular form. Atomus is derived from Latin atomus, from Ancient Greek ἄτομος (átomos, “indivisible”, adjective), from ᾰ̓- (ă-, prefix forming terms having an opposite sense) + τομ- (tom-) (stem of τέμνω (témnō, “to cut”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *temh₁- (“to cut”)) + -ος (-os, suffix forming nouns of action or result). Doublet of atom.
noun
- A tiny particle; an atom, a mote, a speck.
- A tiny particle; an atom, a mote, a speck.; A floating mote or speck of dust.
- A tiny particle; an atom, a mote, a speck.; The smallest, indivisible constituent part or unit of something; an atom.
- A very small being; a mite.
- A skeleton.
- A person who is very emaciated or thin; a skeleton.
- Chiefly in the works of the English author Charles Dickens (1812–1870): a thing which is very slender and weak.e.g.“[T]he contents of his plate chest, consisting of two withered atomies of teaspoons, and an obsolete pair of knock-knee'd sugar tongs; […]” — 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “In which the Wooden Midshipman Gets into Trouble”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 86:
adj
- Made up of tiny particles.e.g.“Things that flit in the sky or creep / In the atomy dust, or swarm in the deep, […]” — 1918, George Rostrevor [Hamilton], “Thoughts”, in Escape and Fantasy: Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 19:
- Resembling a tiny particle; atomlike.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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