Noun

(en noun)

Human nature or the human body as representative of the wider universe; man considered as a miniature counterpart of divine or universal nature.

* 1972', Rolf Soellner, ''Shakespeare's Patterns of Self-Knowledge'', Chapter 3: '''''Microcosm and Macrocosm: Framing The Picture of Man , page 43:

The Christian humanists were emphatic in their demand that a man who wishes to understand himself must realize that he is a little world that reflects on a smaller scale the larger world of the universe.On the other hand, the whole idea of man as a microcosm was questioned by those who were not in sympathy with the Christian humanists.

(obsolete) The human body; a person.

* (William Shakespeare), , First Folio 1623, Act 2, Scene 1:

If you see this in the Map of my Microcosme , followes it that I am knowne well enough too?

A smaller system which is seen as representative (of) a larger one.

* 1999 , Barry McIntyre, The Guardian , 16 Dec 1999:

‘In a sense, the problems experienced at Bristol are like a microcosm of what is happening in the NHS - experienced surgeons battling against difficult circumstances, with inadequate resources and in a culture where the finding of scapegoats appears to be put before the finding of solutions.’

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Phil Dawkes , title=Sunderland 2 - 2 West Brom , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Steve Bruce's side have swung from highs to lows in what has been at best a wildly inconsistent start to the season. They experienced a microcosm of this within the opening 45 minutes at the Stadium of Light.}}

(ecology) A small natural ecosystem; an artificial ecosystem set up as an experimental model.

* 2009 , Jerry C. Smrchek, Maurice G. Zeeman, Chapter 3: Assessing Risks to Ecological Systems from Chemicals'', Peter P. Calow (editor), ''Handbook of Environmental Risk Assessment and Management , page 53:

The method is relatively labour intensive (24-30 microcosms' are run) and more difficult to interpret when compared with other ' microcosm methods (Shannon et al. 1986; Cairns & Cherry 1993).