Latin

Noun

māchinula f ‎(genitive māchinulae); first declension

1. a little machine
   • 1511, Franciscus Marius Grapaldus, De partibus aedium, Liber I, Folio 8v:

     Antlia machinulae est ad aquam hauriendam excogitata, nam αντλειν latine haurire dicitur.

     The pump of a little machine is contrived to draw up water, for (Greek) αντλειν is said in Latin "to draw up".

   • 1685, Jean-Jacques Manget, Bibliotheca anatomica, Vol. II, Cap. XVII, Propos. CXIV:

     Quaelibet fibra musculosa similis est catenae ex pluribus rhombis compositae, quae contrahi possunt ad instar arcus. Quia musculi sunt fasciculi compositi ex subtillissimis filis tendinosis tenacissimis, qui decurtantur non secus, ac fides citharae, & fila Chalybea distracta, & multo majori vi fibrae ab imperio voluntatis contrahuntur; cumque talis contractio intelligi non possit absque machina ad instar arcus, nec contractio omnium partium fibrae concipi potest absque continuata serie machinularum ad instar catenae, ut dictum est; Ergo quaelibet fibra musculi similis erit catenae ex machinulis compositae.

     The muscle fiber is everywhere similar to a chain composed of many rhombi, which can contract like a bow. Because muscles are bundles composed of the thinnest firmest tendon filaments, which are cut down not unlike the strings of a guitar, or the drawn filaments of the Chalybean steel workers, and are drawn together at the bidding of the will with a strength much greater than that of the fiber; however such a contraction cannot be understood apart from a machine like a bow, nor can the contraction of all parts of the fiber be conceived apart from a continuous series of little machines just like a chain, as it is called; Therefore the fiber of the muscle everywhere will be similar to a chain composed of little machines.

   • 1716, Jakob Hermann, Phoromia, Liber II, no. 296:

     Corollarium praecedens fundamentum continet diversarum machinularum hygrostathmicarum, quibus diversorum liquorum specifica gravitates explorari solent.

     The preceding corollary contains the basis for various little hygrostatic machines by which specific gravities of various liquids are usually investigated.

Inflection

First declension.

References

machinula in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “machinula”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.