atomy

• IPA^(key): /ˈætəmi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

See atom.

atomy (plural atomy or atomies)

1. (archaic) A floating mote or speck of dust.^[1]
   • 1595, Gervase Markham, The most Honorable Tragedie of Sir Richard Grinuile, Knight,‎^[3]:

     And thicker then in sunne are Atomies,
     Flew bullets, fier, and slaughtered dead mens cries.

   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:

     That eyes, that are the frail’st and softest things
     Who shut their coward gates on atomies
     Should be call’d tyrants, butchers, murderers!

   • 1622, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in The Second Part, or A Continuance of Poly-Olbion from the Eighteenth Song. […], London: […] Augustine Mathewes for Iohn Marriott, Iohn Grismand, and Thomas Dewe, →OCLC, page 109:

     Thinke not that all betwixt the Wherpoole, and the Sprat,
     I goe about to name, that were to take in hand,
     The Atomy to tell, or to cast vp the sand;

   • 1824, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Triumph of Life”, in Posthumous Poems‎^[4], London: John and Henry L. Hunt, page 91:

     […] the crew
     Seemed in that light, like atomies to dance
     Within a sunbeam;

   • 1880, Richard Francis Burton, The Kasidah, London: H. S. Nichols, 1894, p. 7,^[5]

     The marvel is that man can smile dreaming his ghostly ghastly dream;—

     Better the heedless atomy that buzzes in the morning beam!

2. (archaic) An indivisible particle.^[2]

   Synonym: atom

   • 1610, Gervase Markham, chapter 2, in Markhams Maister-Peece‎^[6], 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^[7], 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^[8], London, page 6:

     […] praise thy God,
     O be not selfe-conceited, least his rod
     Doe bruise thee into Atomies;

3. (archaic) A tiny being; a very small person.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

     […] she [Queen Mab] 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;

   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 71:

     Was there a "delicate atomy" of minute dimensions and pale complexion, he forthwith strutted a hardy Highlander.

   • 1862 August – 1863 March, Charles Kingsley, “(please specify the page)”, in The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby, London; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., published 1863, →OCLC, pages 331-332:

     “Hey!” he said, “why, it’s Tom! I suppose you have come here to laugh at me, you spiteful little atomy?”

Rebracketing of anatomy (“skeleton”) as an atomy.

atomy (plural atomies)

1. (archaic) A skeleton. [from 16th c.]
   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv]:

     Hostess Quickly. Ay, come, you starv’d bloodhound.
     Doll Tearsheet. Goodman death, goodman bones!
     Hostess Quickly. Thou atomy, thou!
     Doll Tearsheet. Come, you thin thing! come, you rascal!

   • 1728, John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera, Dublin: George Risk et al., Act II, Scene 1, p. 67,^[9]

     I could not save him from those fleaing Rascals the Surgeons; and now, poor Man, he is among the Otamys [sic] at Surgeon's Hall.

   • 1769, Tobias Smollett, The History and Adventures of an Atom‎^[10], volume 1, London: Robinson and Roberts, page 2:

     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;

   • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, 1st book (Poverty), page 28:

     […] 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.

   • 1866, Christina Rossetti, “The Prince’s Progress”, in The Prince’s Progress and Other Poems‎^[11], London: Macmillan, page 11:

     The veriest atomy he looked,
     With grimy fingers clutching and crooked,
     Tight skin, a nose all bony and hooked,
     And a shaking, sharp, suspicious way;

From atom +‎ -y.

atomy (comparative more atomy, superlative most atomy)

1. Resembling a tiny particle; made up of tiny particles.
   • 1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym] (Samuel L[anghorne] Clemens), chapter XXXV, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 398:

     […] 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,^[12]

     […] the atomy speck, hurled through space, which we mortals call the world!—

   • 1919, George Rostrevor Hamilton, “Thoughts”, in Escape and Fantasy: Poems‎^[13], New York: Macmillan, page 19:

     Things that flit in the sky or creep
     In the atomy dust, or swarm in the deep,

• atomic

• IPA^(key): /aˈtɔ.mɘ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔmɘ
• Syllabification: a‧to‧my

atomy m

1. nominative plural of atom
2. accusative plural of atom
3. vocative plural of atom