What word refers to the minutest thing that is part of some other thing? And I don’t mean the subatomic particles like muons, quarks, and that sort of thing. More like body parts, little chunks of geography, tiny parts of articles of clothing, little bitty auto parts, stuff that would be classified as “everyday stuff.”
Before somebody tries “bit” as the fundamental computer “atom” in logic/language, here it is, and that ain’t it.
Maybe you go with “rod” or “cone” as those things in your eyeball that help you see. Or maybe “amoeba” or “parameceum” as little bitty critters.
But think of something a little more arcane than these obvious ones, please.
In dutch (and propably other germanic languages as well) it’s possible to ‘chain’ words, thereby enabling it’s speakers to make horribly specific words, like “vrachtwagenlinkerachterwielverstelschroefje”, which translates to “the little screw that is used to adjust the left rear wheel on a truck”.
Indeed. I have been amazed by how specific some words can be. Like “follicle” for that part of a hair. There’s a name for the little moon thing on your fingernail, too, but I can’t remember what it is at the moment.
But your item is damn specific and that’s the very sort of thing to shoot for.
The flip side of the issue (maybe worth a separate thread?) is the biggest thing that doesn’t have its own unique name. I can’t even think of a good example of that one.
There’s “serif” (the little extra lines on the tips of letters in a font like Times New Roman), or “ferrule”, the little metal ring on a pencil that holds the eraser in place. (Actually, more broadly a metal ring on a pipe or rod used to reinforce it or to provide a place to attach something.)
The lunula or lunule (which is basically just Latin for “little moon”). There’s also the philtrum, which is the groove in your upper lip below your nose.
It’s summer. Go find a bug. Any kind with big bulgy bug eyes. Bee, fly, grasshopper, wasp, cicada, mosquito, even a roach.
Bug eyes of this type are called compound eyes because they are made up of many extremely eeensy hexagonal facets, each with its own optic nerve. Each of these is called an ommatidium (plural: ommatidia). Flies’ eyes have the most, and smallest.
Y’know, I was just checking my bug-eye anatomy on Google Groups (because I can’t STAND looking at pictures of the damn things), and I learned that ommatidia do not contain optic nerves. Instead they have channels of light-sensitive cells called rhabdomeres. Now those must be pretty damn eeensy indeed.