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1610, Gervase Markham, chapter 2, in Markhams Maister-Peece, London: Nicholas Okes, page 4:
Lastly, it [an Element] is the least part or Atomie of that thing which is made, or proceedeth from it.
1633, John Donne, “An Anatomie of the World”, in Poems, London: John Marriott, page 242:
And freely men confesse that this world’s spent, When in the Planets, and the firmament They seeke so many new; they see that this Is crumbled out againe to his Atomies.
1641, Thomas Herbert, An Elegie upon the Death of Thomas, Earle of Strafford, London, page 6:
[…] praise thy God, O be not selfe-conceited, least his rod Doe bruise thee into Atomies;
[…] she comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the fore-finger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep;
I was now thrown into a violent perturbation of spirit; for I never could behold an atomy without fear and trembling, even when I knew it was no more than a composition of dry bones;
[…] a bedstead with four bare atomies of posts, each terminating in a spike, as if for the dismal accommodation of lodgers who might prefer to impale themselves.
[…] noble Lesser Alps which were clothed in rich velvety green all the way up and had little atomy Swiss homes perched upon grassy benches along their mist-dimmed heights.
1894, Richard Henry Savage, The Princess of Alaska, Chicago and New York: Rand, McNally, Book 2, Chapter 8, p. 235,
the atomy speck, hurled through space, which we mortals call the world!—
1919, George Rostrevor Hamilton, “Thoughts”, in Escape and Fantasy: Poems, New York: Macmillan, page 19:
Things that flit in the sky or creep In the atomy dust, or swarm in the deep,
^ John Bullokar, An English Expositer Teaching the Interpretation of the Hardest Words Vsed in our Language, London: John Legatt, 1616: “Atomie. A mote flying in the sunne. Any thing so small, that it cannot bee made lesse.”
^ Robert Cawdrey, A Table Alphabeticall of Hard Vsuall English Wordes, London: Edmund Weaver, 1609: “atomie, a thing so small that it cannot bée deuided.”