Etymology Word of the Week – As some of you know, in addition to working in the Admissions Office, I also teach Latin at Saint Ignatius and am something of a "word nerd." Thus, each week, I’ll sneak a vocabulary word (sometimes derived from Latin, sometimes not) into the e-blast. Here, then. is this week’s edition of the Etymology Word of the Week.
Microcosm
Definition: “A community, place, or situation regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristic qualities or features of something much larger.”
Origin/Derivation: From the Greek mikros meaning “small” and kosmos meaning “world.”
Related Words/Phrases: cosmic, cosmopolitan, cosmetic, cosmology, macrocosm; microfiche, microscope, microphone, micromanage, microbiology, etc, etc.
Caption: The couple’s inability to agree on what TV show to watch was a microcosm of the dynamics of their relationship.
(All information is from
www.wikipedia.org,
www.etymonline.com and/or
www.dictionary.com)