animalcule

English

WOTD – 11 January 2023

Etymology

A scanning electron micrograph of human spermatozoa, formerly known as animalcules (sense 1).

An 18th-century illustration of animalcules (sense 2) seen through microscopes.

Learned borrowing from Late Latin animalculum (“lowly or small animal”) + English -cule (diminutive suffix). Animalculum is derived from Latin animal (“animal; living creature”) + -culum (diminutive suffix); and animal from animāle, the nominative neuter singular of animālis (“animate, living; relating to living creatures”), from anima (“breath; life; soul, spirit”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enh₁- (“to breathe”)) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship). The English word is analysable as animal +‎ -cule.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ænɪˈmælkjuːl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌænəˈmælˌkjul/
• Hyphenation: ani‧mal‧cule

Noun

animalcule (plural animalcules)

1. (physiology, historical) A sperm cell or spermatozoon; also, the embryo that was formerly thought to be contained inside a spermatozoon in a fully developed state. [from 17th c.]
   • 2001, David M. Friedman, “The Gear Shift”, in A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis, New York, N.Y.: The Free Press, →ISBN, page 76:

     [Antonie van] Leeuwenhoek's most mysterious finding was yet to come, however. Inside the animalcules in the thickest part of the semen he saw / all manner of great and small vessels, so various and so numerous that I do not doubt that they be nerves, arteries and veins. …

2. (zoology, archaic) A microscopic aquatic animal, including protozoa and rotifers. [from 17th c.]
   • 2011, John Jeremiah Sullivan, “La·hwi·ne·ski: Career of an Eccentric Naturalist”, in Pulphead, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →OCLC, pages 212–213:

     If we are part of nature, then we are synonymous with it at the metaphysical level, every bit as much as the first all-but-inorganic animalcules that ever formed a chain of themselves in the blow hole of a primordial sea vent.

3. (obsolete) A small animal. [16th–20th c.]
   • 1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Pause”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, page 137:

     Why, there is not a Man, or a Thing, now alive but has tools. The basest of created animalcules, the Spider itself, has a spinning-jenny, and warping-mill, and power-loom within its head: […]

   • 1928 February 25 – March 3, Arthur Conan Doyle, “When the World Screamed”, in The Professor Challenger Stories […], London: John Murray, […], published [1952], →OCLC, page 555:

     Is it not evident that if a parasitic animalcule desired to call its attention it would sink a hole in its shell and so stimulate its sensory apparatus?

Synonyms

• animalcula (used as a singular noun) (archaic)
• animalculum

Hyponyms

• bell animalcule (peritrich)
• eye animalcule
• globe animalcule
• proteus animalcule (amoeba)
• slipper animalcule (paramecium)
• sun animalcule (heliozoa)
• trumpet animalcule (stentor)
• wheel animalcule (rotifer)

 

Derived terms

• animalcular
• animalculine (obsolete, rare)
• animalculism (historical)
• animalculist (historical)
• animalculistic
• animalculous (archaic)
• caminalcule

 

Related terms

• animalcula (used as a singular noun)
• animalculum

Translations

sperm cell or spermatozoon — see spermatozoon

embryo that was formerly thought to be contained inside a spermatozoon in a fully developed state

• Finnish: alkueläin (fi) (rare)

microscopic aquatic animal, including protozoa and rotifers

• Arabic: حييوينات
• Catalan: animàlcul m
• Finnish: alkueläin (fi)
• French: animalcule (fr) m
• Hindi: जंतुक (jantuk)
• Ido: animaleto (io)
• Latin: animalculum n
• Portuguese: animálculo m
• Romanian: animalcul (ro) m
• Spanish: animálculo (es) m
• Volapük: nimil

Further reading

• animalcule on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Noun

animalcule m (plural animalcules)

1. animalcule

Further reading

• “animalcule”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.