microcosm
/ˈmaɪ.kɹə(ʊ)ˌkɒz.əm/
microcosm means human nature or the human body as representative of the wider universe; man considered as a miniature counterpart of divine or universal nature.
microcosm is pronounced /ˈmaɪ.kɹə(ʊ)ˌkɒz.əm/.
Why “microcosm” is a great word
A community, place, or situation regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristic qualities or structure of something much larger. From the Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós, "small") + κόσμος (kósmos, "world, universe, order"); via Latin microcosmus and French microcosme, with the general sense of 'a little society' attested from the 1560s. Unlike "macrocosm," which gazes outward to the vast, encompassing whole, or "model," which offers a simplified, constructed representation, a microcosm possesses an organic, inherent completeness. It is the teeming anthill enacting the dramas of a sprawling city; the coral reef holding within its acre all the predation and symbiosis of the wider ocean; the quiet classroom where hierarchies form, dissolve, and remake themselves by lunchtime. To find one is to hold infinity, not in the palm of your hand, but in the ordered chaos of a bounded, knowable world.
Etymology
From French microcosme, from Latin microcosmus, from Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós, “small”) + κόσμος (kósmos, “universe, order”); micro- + -cosm.
noun
- Human nature or the human body as representative of the wider universe; man considered as a miniature counterpart of divine or universal nature.“The Christian humanists were emphatic in their demand that a man who wishes to understand himself must realize that he is a little world that reflects on a smaller scale the larger world of the universe. […] On the other hand, the whole idea of man as a microcosm was questioned by those who were not in sympathy with the Christian humanists.”
- The human body; a person.“If you see this in the Map of my Microcosme, followes it that I am knowne well enough too?”
- A smaller system which is seen as representative of a larger one.“Near-synonyms: epitome, paradigm, model”
- A small natural ecosystem; an artificial ecosystem set up as an experimental model.“The method is relatively labour intensive (24-30 microcosms are run) and more difficult to interpret when compared with other microcosm methods (Shannon et al. 1986; Cairns & Cherry 1993).”
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