Word of the
Day for Friday 17th January
2014
Infinitesimal \in-fin-i-TES-uh-muhl\, adjective:
1. indefinitely or exceedingly
small; minute: infinitesimal vessels in the circulatory system.
2. immeasurably small; less than an assignable quantity: to an infinitesimal degree.
3. of, pertaining to, or involving infinitesimals.
2. immeasurably small; less than an assignable quantity: to an infinitesimal degree.
3. of, pertaining to, or involving infinitesimals.
Then
the waves increased in strength, and sought to improve his understanding,
reconciling him to the multiform entity of which his present fragment was an infinitesimal part.
-- H.P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffman Price, "Through the Gates of the Silver Key," Weird Tales, July 1934
-- H.P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffman Price, "Through the Gates of the Silver Key," Weird Tales, July 1934
I
knew that her diversions described an arc only minutely different from before;
but that infinitesimal alteration separated our steps, one
from another, with brutal absoluteness.
-- Claire Messud, The Last Life, 1999
-- Claire Messud, The Last Life, 1999
Infinitesimal comes from
the Latin word infinītus meaning "boundless." The
suffix -ēsimus was added to ordinal numbers in Latin.
Thanks to: www.dictionary.com
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