corpuscle

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a blood cell, especially a red or white blood cell; now chiefly used in older or nontechnical language

   The microscope revealed an abnormally shaped red corpuscle.

2. 2
   noun

   historical physics: a minute particle of matter or radiation

   Early theories described light as a stream of tiny corpuscles.

3. 3
   noun

   a very small particle or speck of any substance

   A single corpuscle of dust drifted through the beam of light.

From Latin corpusculum ("small body"), the diminutive of corpus ("body"). English first used it for minute physical particles; medicine then applied it to free cells in blood and other bodily fluids, as in red and white corpuscles.

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