An atomy is a diminutive fairy creature or sprite of surprising smallness that was mentioned in some historic literature.

Literature

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare describes Atomies pulling Queen Mab's carriage.

O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep;
Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners’ legs,

Fairy Land by Edgar Allan Poe references atomies in the last lines:

They use that moon no more
For the same end as before-
Videlicet, a tent-
Which I think extravagant:
Its atomies, however,
Into a shower dissever,
Of which those butterflies
Of Earth, who seek the skies,
And so come down again,
(Never-contented things!)
Have brought a specimen
Upon their quivering wings.

External links

• Glossary for THE CHERRY AND THE SLAE by H. Harvey Wood
• OED Atomy
• The Free Dictionary: Atomy
• Your Dictionary: Atomy
• Wordweb: Atomy
• Fairy Story referring to the a sprite as an Atomy

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Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Atomy". Image Credit.

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