Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.
HOMUNCULUS
homunculus
(noun) a tiny fully formed individual that (according to the discredited theory of preformation) is supposed to be present in the sperm cell
manikin, mannikin, homunculus
(noun) a person who is very small but who is not otherwise deformed or abnormal
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
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.
Source: Wiktionary
Ho*mun"cu*lus, n.; pl. Homunculi. Etym: [L., dim. of homo man.]
Definition: A little man; a dwarf; a manikin. Sterne.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
6 May 2025
HEEDLESS
(adjective) marked by or paying little heed or attention; “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics”--Franklin D. Roosevelt; “heedless of danger”; “heedless of the child’s crying”
Coffee Trivia
