| 释义 |
macrocosm|ˈmækrəʊkɒz(ə)m|
Also rarely in L. and quasi-Gr. forms: 7 macrocosmus, 9 -cosmos.
[ad. F. macrocosme (c 1300), ad. med.L. macrocosmus, repr. Gr. *µακρὸς κόσµος (µακρός long, great, κόσµος world). (Cf. megacosm.)
Although med.L. macrocosmus has not been found earlier than in Higden (c 1350) it must be the source of the Fr. form recorded c 1300, and it seems to imply the prior existence of a Gr. phrase *µακρὸς κόσµος formed in imitation of µικρὸς κόσµος microcosm. For the idea expressed, cf. Macrobius In Somn. Scip. i. xii, ‘Ideo physici mundum magnum hominem, et hominem brevem mundum esse dixerunt’. From the use of brevem here, and the gloss ‘Microscosmum..petit monde, c'est l'homme qui pou dure’ (Du Cange), it may be suspected that µακρός was at first intended in the sense of ‘long’, interpreted with regard to duration; though the inference is not absolutely necessary, as the formal similarity of the word to µικρός would sufficiently account for its selection in an antithetic phrase. However this may be, the relation of the words macrocosm and microcosm has suggested the use of macro- with the sense ‘on a large scale’, in many modern words antithetic to words beginning with micro-.]
1. The ‘great world’ or universe, in contradistinction to the ‘little world’ or microcosm, i.e. to man viewed as an epitome of the universe.
The earliest instances of the word in Eng. occur in Lydgate's Assembly of the Gods (c 1420; oldest MS. a 1500), where however it is a mistake (either on the part of Lydgate or of the scribe) for microcosm. (See, e.g., line 1828: And as for Macrocosme, hit ys no more to say But the lesse worlde.)
1600W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 274 Throughout all this vaste Macrocosme, they finde not one patterne..like to ours. 1794G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. IV. xlix. 353 Applied and determined by an Infinite Mind in the macrocosm or universe. 1867Froude Short Stud., Sci. Hist. 9 He desires, first, to see the spirit of the Macrocosmos. 1881Huxley in Nature No. 615. 346 The microcosm repeats the macrocosm.
2. transf. In various occasional applications, denoting some great whole, the structure of which is conceived to be imaged on a smaller scale by that of some constituent portion of it.
1851Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 347 No population..is absolutely inert in the macrocosm of humanity. 1875N. Amer. Rev. CXX. 256 The macrocosm of society can be inferred from the microcosm of individual human nature. 1896J. R. Harris Union with God iii. 59 His life is the great life, and all our little lives are involved in it, Christ being the macrocosm, and ourselves the microcosm.
Hence ˌmacroˈcosmic a. [-ic], of or pertaining to the macrocosm or universe. † macroˈcosmical a. [-ic + -al], = macrocosmic a. macrocosˈmology [-ology], a description of the macrocosm.
1625Gill Sacr. Philos. iv. 53 There is some powerfull principle, for sending up such waters which naturally doe flee from heat, as this macrocosmicall Sun is for drawing of them upward. 1690W. Y. Artif. Wines To Rdr. A ij b, When the Macrocosmical World was finished. 1856Mayne Expos. Lex., Macrocosmical, Macrocosmology. 1871Tylor Prim. Cult. I. 316 It forms part of that macrocosmic description of the universe well known in Asiatic myth. |