From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Corpuscle \Cor"pus*cle\ (-p[u^]s*s'l), n. [L. corpusculum, dim.
of corpus.]
1. A minute particle; an atom; a molecule.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Anat.) A protoplasmic animal cell; esp., such as float
free, like blood, lymph, and pus corpuscles; or such as
are imbedded in an intercellular matrix, like connective
tissue and cartilage corpuscles. See {Blood}.
[1913 Webster]
Virchow showed that the corpuscles of bone are
homologous with those of connective tissue.
--Quain's
Anat.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Physics) An electron. [archaic]
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
{Red blood corpuscles} (Physiol.), in man, yellowish,
biconcave, circular discs varying from 1/3500 to 1/3200 of
an inch in diameter and about 1/12400 of an inch thick.
They are composed of a colorless stroma filled in with
semifluid h[ae]moglobin and other matters. In most mammals
the red corpuscles are circular, but in the camels, birds,
reptiles, and the lower vertebrates generally, they are
oval, and sometimes more or less spherical in form. In
Amphioxus, and most invertebrates, the blood corpuscles
are all white or colorless.
{White blood corpuscles} (Physiol.), rounded, slightly
flattened, nucleated cells, mainly protoplasmic in
composition, and possessed of contractile power. In man,
the average size is about 1/2500 of an inch, and they are
present in blood in much smaller numbers than the red
corpuscles.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Electron \E*lec"tron\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. 'h`lektron. See
{Electric}.]
1. Amber; also, the alloy of gold and silver, called
{electrum}. [archaic]
[1913 Webster]
2. (Physics & Chem.) one of the fundamental subatomic
particles, having a negative charge and about one
thousandth the mass of a hydrogen atom. The electron
carries (or is) a natural unit of negative electricity,
equal to 3.4 x 10^{-10} electrostatic units, and is
classed by physicists as a {lepton}. Its mass is
practically constant at the lesser speeds, but increases
due to relativistic effects as the velocity approaches
that of light. Electrons are all of one kind, so far as is
known. Thus far, no structure has been detected within an
electron, and it is probably one of the ultimate composite
constituents of all matter. An atom or group of atoms from
which an electron has been detached has a positive charge
and is called a {cation}. Electrons are projected from the
cathode of vacuum tubes (including television picture
tubes) as {cathode rays} and from radioactive substances
as the {beta rays}. Previously also referred to as
{corpuscle}, an obsolete term. The motion of electrons
through metallic conductors is observed as an electric
current. A particle identical to the electron in mass and
most other respects, but having a positive instead of a
negative charge, is called a {positron}, or {antielectron}
[Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC] Electro-negative
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
corpuscle
n 1: (nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything [syn: {atom},
{molecule}, {particle}, {corpuscle}, {mote}, {speck}]
2: either of two types of cells (erythrocytes and leukocytes)
and sometimes including platelets [syn: {blood cell}, {blood
corpuscle}, {corpuscle}]
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