Pronounced: puh-LAH-jick, adj
Notes: My guess was way off regarding the definition of this word
Yesterday’s word
The word homunculus is
- a tiny human being
- [an early belief] a fully-formed miniature human being present in the male or female reproductive cells
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
Background / Comments
In the classic British Sci-Fi show Doctor Who, one of the most popular actors to play the title role is Tom Baker. One of his stories, The Talons of Weng-Chiang is always ranked near or at the top of the best of the classic Doctor Who shows. In that show, there is a criminal from 51st century earth who brings with him something called “the Peking Homunculus”, which is a kind of android using the brain of a pig. That is my only encounter with our word, and it didn’t really help with the definition. Our word came from the Latin word homunculus (little man), which is just a diminutive of homo (man).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 