animalcular
|an-i-mal-cu-lar|
🇺🇸
/ˌænɪˈmælkjələr/
🇬🇧
/ˌænɪˈmælkjʊlə/
pertaining to microscopic organisms
Etymology
'animalcular' originates from English, formed from 'animalcule' (from New Latin 'animalculum,' a diminutive of Latin 'animal') plus the adjectival suffix '-ar' from Latin '-aris'.
'animalculum' in New Latin yielded English 'animalcule' in Early Modern English, which then produced the adjective 'animalcular' in scientific and popular writing of the 18th–19th centuries.
Initially, it meant 'pertaining to tiny animals,' but it came to denote what is 'microscopic or due to minute organisms,' especially in historical biological and medical contexts.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
relating to or consisting of animalcules; microscopic; involving minute organisms.
Early microscopists described an animalcular world in a single drop of pond water.
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Adjective 2
caused by or attributable to minute organisms; used especially in historical discussions of disease (the animalcular theory).
Nineteenth-century physicians debated whether cholera had an animalcular origin.
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Last updated: 2025/08/11 19:07