macrocosmn.

Etymology: < French macrocosme (13th or early 14th cent. in Old French) or its etymon post-classical Latin macrocosmus (late 12th cent.; in British sources from mid 13th to late 15th cent.), probably formed ( < macro- macro- comb. form + cosmus cosmos n.¹) as the antithesis of microcosmus (see microcosm n.). The earliest instances of the word in English occur in The Assembly of Gods, where it is a mistake for microcosm : see quot. c1500 at sense 1. In sense 2 after extended senses of microcosm n.The idea is expressed already in Macrobius (c400) In Somn. Scip. 1. 12 ‘Ideo physici mundum magnum hominem, et hominem brevem mundum esse dixerunt’. From the use of brevem here it has been suggested that μακρός was at first intended in the sense of ‘long’, interpreted with regard to duration; however, in Bernard Silvestris' De Universitate Mundi (mid 12th cent.) megacosmus (see megacosm n.) is the term that is used contrastively with microcosmus . Early contextual use of macrocosmus is found in Innocent III De Miseria Humanae Conditionis (a1198) 38 ‘Senuit jam mundus uterque, scilicet macrocosmus, et microcosmus, id est major mundus et minor mundus’. The relation of the words macrocosm and microcosm has probably suggested the use of macro- with the sense ‘on a large scale’ in many modern words contrasted with words beginning with micro- : see macro- comb. form 3.