HOMUNCULUS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Homunculus

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Homunculus

noun

(pl. homunculi)

A person who is very small but who is not otherwise deformed or abnormal. Synonyms: manikin, mannikin.

A tiny fully formed individual that (according to the discredited theory of preformation) is supposed to be present in the sperm cell.

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Etymology of 'Homunculus'

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"Homunculus" Quotes from Famous Books

... one of these loose M.P.'s ramping about I always cut his claws at once. I say, "Now, Mr. T.G., you must understand that, according to my standard, you are a homunculus of the lowest type. There is nothing I value a man for that you can do; there is nothing I consider worth directing the human mind upon that you know. If you ask for any information which I may deem ...

— Twenty-One Days in India; and, the Teapot Series • George Robert Aberigh-Mackay

... explicabo; nec tamen, quasi Pythius Apollo, certa ut sint et fixa, quae dixero; sed ut Homunculus unus e multis probabiliora conjectura sequens.—CIC. TUSC. DISP. ...

— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin

... that Albert of Cologne was accused by the vulgar of holding illicit commerce with the devil. They believed as a matter of course that he was aided by Beelzebub. And legends grew about him in wild luxuriance. In particular he is credited with the creation of an android, homunculus, or, as some say, a fair maiden—an idea which Goethe may have copied in his celebrated play—able, according to some, to say only 'Salve,' but, according to others, to predict with the unerring accuracy of a Zadkiel a change of government, ...

— War and the Weird • Forbes Phillips

Words linked to "Homunculus" : individual, manikin, small person, mannikin, mortal, person, someone, somebody, soul