Popularized in 16th-century alchemy and 19th-century fiction, it has historically referred to the creation of a miniature, fully formed human. The concept has roots in preformationism as well as earlier folklore and alchemic traditions.

Homunculus, diminutive fully formed human body, historically believed to inhabit a germ cell (an egg or a sperm) and to have the capacity to increase in size, giving rise to an adult human.

2008年8月13日 · The term homunculus is Latin for “little man.” It is used in neurology today to describe the map in the brain of sensory neurons in each part of the body (the somatosensory homunculus).

1. a fully formed, miniature human body believed, according to some medical theories of the 16th and 17th centuries, to be contained in the spermatozoon. 2. a graphic projection of the human image onto the surface of the motor cortex of the brain, depicting the extent of the area activating each part of the body subject to voluntary control.

HOMUNCULE definition: a miniature person; midget | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples in American English

What does the noun homuncule mean? There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun homuncule . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

A homunculus is a "little man." In the 17th century, theorists called preformationists argued that a human being begins life as a tiny, preformed person — a homunculus — encapsulated in the sperm or, as some thought, in the egg.

In the Middle Ages, a homunculus was an artificial humanoid created through alembics and mysterious alchemy. In modern times, Penfield and Boldrey brewed their own version of the homunculus using more controlled, though no less controversial, ingredients. Their approach was systematic and laborious.

4 meanings: 1. diminutive or miniature in size 2. pertaining to the early biological theory of a fully-formed miniature human.... Click for more definitions.

2024年9月28日 · homunculus (plural homunculi) A miniature man, once imagined by spermists to be present in human sperm. The nerve map of the human body that exists on the parietal lobe of the human brain. For quotations using this term, see Citations:homunculus.