| 释义 |
corpuscle|ˈkɔːpəs(ə)l, kɔːˈpʌs(ə)l|
[mod. ad. L. corpuscul-um, dim. of L. corpus body.]
1. a. A minute body or particle of matter. Sometimes identified with atom or with molecule.
1660Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. i. 25 Each Corpuscle endeavours to beat off all others. 1674Petty Disc. Dupl. Proportion 124 Corpuscles, or the smallest Bodies that can possibly be seen..these Corpuscles are made of Atoms, or the smallest bodies in Nature. 1697Potter Antiq. Greece iv. viii. (1715) 241 For from their Bodies on the Pile do fly Enrag'd Corpuscles justling in the Sky. 1725Watts Logic i. iii. §4 Who knows what are the figures of the little corpuscles that compose and distinguish different bodies? 1812Sir H. Davy Chem. Philos. 56 Whether matter consists of indivisible corpuscles, or physical points.
†b. Little body (of an animal). Obs.
1665Hooke Microgr. 197 This pretty little grey Moth..could very nimbly, and as it seem'd very easily move its corpuscle, through the Air, from place to place.
2. Phys.
a. Any minute body (usually of microscopic size), forming a more or less distinct part of the organism.
Often with defining attributes, or specific additions (chiefly in plural), as blood-corpuscles (see also b), lymph-c.; gustatory corpuscle or taste corpuscle, tactile corpuscle or touch c. Malpighian corpuscles: certain minute bodies in the substance of the spleen (splenic c.), and of the kidney. Pacinian c., c. of Vater: minute bulbous bodies enclosing the ends of nerves in various parts of the body, esp. in the fingers and toes.
1741Monro Anat. Nerves (ed. 3) 73 The Edges of the semilunar Valves are duplicated with a muscular Corpuscle in the Middle. 1845–6G. E. Day tr. Simon's Anim. Chem. I. 120 Since lymph-corpuscles also pass into the blood, the formation of blood-corpuscles from them in the blood-vessels cannot be denied. 1858Carpenter Veg. Phys. §399 Little round corpuscles, which are emitted..from the spore-sacs, and which are the true germ-cells. 1859G. Wilson Gateways Knowl. (ed. 3) 99 The tips of the fingers..possess..an unusual supply of certain minute auxiliary bodies called tactile corpuscles. 1878Bell Gegenbauer's Comp. Anat. 15 Such corpuscles of protoplasm as are provided with a nucleus are called cells.
b. esp. (pl.) Minute rounded or discoidal bodies, constituting a large part of the blood in man and other vertebrates.
1845–6G. E. Day tr. Simon's Anim. Chem. I. 106 On shaking the blood with oxygen gas, the corpuscles became brighter and more transparent. 1869Huxley Phys. (ed. 3) iii. 65 The particles, or corpuscles, of the blood..called respectively the red corpuscles and the colourless corpuscles.
c. Electr. J. J. Thomson's name for what was subsequently called an electron2.
1897J. J. Thomson in Phil. Mag. 5th Ser. XLIV. 311 These primordial atoms, which we shall for brevity call corpuscles. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXX. 452/2 These particles, which were termed by their discoverer corpuscles, are more commonly spoken of as electrons, the particle thus being identified with the charge which it carries. 1958Glasstone Sourcebk. Atomic Energy (ed. 2) ii. 38 The name electron, originally intended by Stoney..for the magnitude of the charge, soon became associated with the actual particles themselves. Possibly in the interest of strict accuracy, Thomson adhered to the term corpuscle for about twenty years, but ultimately he gave it up in favor of electron.
3. Bot. = corpusculum 1 b. |