animalculist
|an-i-mal-cu-list|
/ˌænɪˈmæl.kjʊ.lɪst/
historical: observer of animalcules; animalculism advocate
Etymology
'animalculist' originates from English, formed from 'animalcule' + the agentive suffix '-ist'; 'animalcule' comes from Neo-Latin 'animalculum,' the diminutive of 'animal,' meaning 'little animal.'
'Animalculist' arose in the 17th–18th centuries alongside early microscopy: it labeled observers of 'animalcules' and later those supporting the spermist form of preformationism in embryology.
At first it referred broadly to observers/students of microscopic 'animalcules'; over time it also came to denote adherents of the animalculist (spermist) preformation theory. Today it is chiefly historical/archaic.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
a person who studies or observes animalcules (microscopic organisms), especially in early microscopic science; a microscopist (historical).
An animalculist painstakingly cataloged the tiny organisms he found in a drop of pond water.
Synonyms
Noun 2
a proponent of animalculism, the preformationist theory that a fully formed embryo exists within the spermatozoon (historical embryology).
The animalculist argued that development merely enlarged a preformed miniature within the sperm.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Last updated: 2025/08/11 20:23