noun, plural ho·mun·cu·li
- an artificially-made dwarf, supposedly produced in a flask by an
alchemist - a fully formed, miniature human body believed, according to some
medical theories of the 16th and 17th centuries, to be contained in the spermatozoon - a diminutive human being
- the human foetus.
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19th century engraving of Homunculus from Goethe's Faust part II
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It's a tricky word to slip into a sentence unless, perhaps, you were talking to Umberto Eco or channelling John Dee. This is a crying shame, because it's a peculiarly pleasing word to say out loud. Especially, I think, if you pretend you're a 1940s British bobby (the kind that probably only ever existed on the telly and in Enid Blyton stories), in which case you might well say:
"'ello 'ello 'ello. What we gort 'ere then? An 'omunculus, eh?"
Go on, try it! I'm sure you'll find it as pleasing as I do.
I also like this word because it conjures up such wonderfully arcane images of secret societies carrying out ancient, esoteric rites in hidden chambers lined with dusty tomes. But before I get all Dan Brown on you, I also like it because it sounds a bit like 'monkey' - another very appealing word. And it's such a damned wacky concept. I mean really...
According to one source*, the way to make a homunculus was "to take an egg laid by a black hen, poke a tiny hole through the shell, replace a bean-sized portion of the white with human semen, seal the opening with virgin parchment, and bury the egg in dung on the first day of the March lunar cycle. A miniature humanoid would emerge from the egg after thirty days, which would help and protect its creator in return for a steady diet of lavender seeds and earthworms."
How bloody wonderful!
More reading:
Wiki (of course) has got heaps of fascinating stuff about homunculi, including some modern usages of the word I didn't know about like its use in medicine (to describe rather creepy things called teratomas) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homunculus
*Dr. David Christianus. University of Giessen c18th
According to one source*, the way to make a homunculus was "to take an egg laid by a black hen, poke a tiny hole through the shell, replace a bean-sized portion of the white with human semen, seal the opening with virgin parchment, and bury the egg in dung on the first day of the March lunar cycle. A miniature humanoid would emerge from the egg after thirty days, which would help and protect its creator in return for a steady diet of lavender seeds and earthworms."
How bloody wonderful!
More reading:
Wiki (of course) has got heaps of fascinating stuff about homunculi, including some modern usages of the word I didn't know about like its use in medicine (to describe rather creepy things called teratomas) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homunculus
*Dr. David Christianus. University of Giessen c18th
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