globule

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin globulus (“round lump, little ball, pill”),^[2][3] a diminutive of globus (“sphere, ball”), the source of globe, with the suffix -ulus (-ule).^[2][4][5] Etymonline, the American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Unabridged take it as borrowed through French globule,^[4][6][7] and the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford allow either source;^[3][5] the OED notes that the French word is recorded from before 1662, as a spherical body of small size.^[2] The same Latin word gave Spanish glóbulo, Portuguese glóbulo and Italian globulo in the 18th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A round drop of liquid, or a small round particle of a substance: 1661, in Robert Hooke's Attempt for the Explication of the Phænomena.^[2][7][8] Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford date the word to the 1660s, mid 17th century.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Early microscopy gave the word a use in biology: from 1674 the red blood cells were called globules, a sense now obsolete,^[2][5] and Johnson (1755) defined the word by the example of "the red particles of the blood, which swim in a transparent serum, and are easily discovered by the microscope".^[9] The French word had the same sense in 1742.^[2] In the 19th century botanists applied it to the male reproductive organ of the stoneworts (1828), and in medicine it came to mean a very small pill (1836), later especially a homeopathic one, again as in French (1833).^[2][5][7] Astronomers adopted it in 1947 for the small dark nebulae now called Bok globules, thought to be places where stars form.^[2][10]

Timeline

• 1661 – a round drop of liquid; a small round particle.^[2][7]
• 1674 – a red blood cell (obsolete by 1888).^[2][8]
• 1828 – in botany, the male reproductive structure of a stonewort.^[2][8]
• 1836 – a small pill, later especially a homeopathic one.^[2][8]
• 1947 – in astronomy, a Bok globule.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small round drop of liquid, or a small spherical particle of a substance: globules of oil floating on the soup.^[7][10][2]
2. A small pill, especially a homeopathic one.^[7][2][5]
3. (astronomy) A small dark nebula thought to be a place where stars form; a Bok globule.^[10][2]
4. (botany) The male reproductive structure of a stonewort.^[2][5]
5. (obsolete, 1674–1888) A red blood cell.^[2][5]

Word family

• globuliferous
• globulin
• Bok globule

Related words

• globe
• globular
• -ule

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins