Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Macrocosm
/ˈmækrəkɒzəm/noun
The universe or a whole system, considered against some small thing that mirrors it.
The Greek roots
μακρός
makrós
long, large
κόσμος
kósmos
world, ordered whole
Literally: “great world”
The story of the word
This one was built backwards. Greek had μικρὸς κόσμος for the human being as a small world, but no matching great world; medieval Latin writers manufactured macrocosmus so that the microcosm would have something to be small against. English had it by the fifteenth century, and the pair became standard Renaissance furniture, the body answering the heavens organ by planet.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Medieval Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 15th century
Same family
microcosmcosmosmacronmacroeconomics
In a sentence
What happens in the ward reflects the macrocosm of the whole health service.
Alchemical texts move constantly between macrocosm and microcosm.