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See also: Homunculus

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin homunculus, diminutive of homō (man).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /hɒˈmʌŋk.jʊ.ləs/
  • (US) IPA(key): /həˈmʌŋk.jə.ləs/, /hoʊˈmʌŋk.jə.ləs/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

homunculus (plural homunculi)

  1. A miniature man, once imagined by spermists to be present in human sperm.
    • 2025 May 7, Nina Siegal, “A Rarely Seen Angel With a Lesson From History”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 2025-05-08:
      “It’s this snaggletoothed, little bird-footed homunculus caricature,” Bourneuf said. “Many artists at this time were trying to make new altarpieces. Klee tended to take a very skeptical distance from the sort of grandiose projects of many of his expressionist peers, so I think it’s actually kind of mocking those hopes.”
  2. The nerve map of the human body that exists on the parietal lobe of the human brain.

Quotations

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References

Italian

Alternative forms

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin homunculus (little man). Compare the adapted borrowing omuncolo.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /oˈmun.ku.lus/
  • Rhymes: -unkulus
  • Hyphenation: ho‧mùn‧cu‧lus

Noun

homunculus m (invariable)

  1. (alchemy, folklore) homunculus (a legendary figure resembling a little man, who was said to be created through alchemy)
  2. (historical, biology) homunculus (the little man believed by preformationists to be inside human sperm)
  3. (physiology, neuroscience) homunculus (nerve map realized as a distorted representation of the human body)
    homunculus corticalecortical homunculus
    homunculus motoriomotor homunculus

Further reading

Latin

Etymology

From homō, hominis +‎ -culus.

Pronunciation

Noun

homunculus m (genitive homunculī); second declension

  1. diminutive of homō (man)
  2. a little or weak man, homunculus
  3. (rare) a dwarf
    Synonyms: nānus, pūmiliō

Declension

Second-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative homunculus homunculī
genitive homunculī homunculōrum
dative homunculō homunculīs
accusative homunculum homunculōs
ablative homunculō homunculīs
vocative homuncule homunculī

Descendants

References

  • homunculus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • homunculus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • homunculus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin homunculus.

Noun

homunculus m (plural homunculuși)

  1. homunculus

Declension

Declension of homunculus
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative homunculus homunculusul homunculuși homunculușii
genitive-dative homunculus homunculusului homunculuși homunculușilor
vocative homunculusule homunculușilor