Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small, minor work.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small work; especially, a literary or musical work of small size.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small or petty work.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin opusculum, diminutive of opus, work; see opus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French opuscule, and its source, Latin opusculum, diminutive of opus. Compare opuscle, opusculum.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word opuscule.

Examples

  • But in his snappy new opuscule Snark: A Polemic in Seven Fits (Simon & Schuster), Denby fulminates against the epidemic of verbal hazing.

    Steven G. Kellman: The Snark Ascending 2009

  • Dietrich's De ente et essentia which bears the same title as Thomas Aquinas 'opuscule is indeed a work that gives much evidence of having been prepared as a kind of rebuttal to certain doctrines of Aquinas.

    Dietrich of Freiberg Führer, Markus 2009

  • St. Bonaventure, a disciple and spiritual son of the "Poverello" of Assisi, took up and developed this idea in an opuscule entitled "The Five Feasts of the Child Jesus."

    Archive 2008-12-14 papabear 2008

  • There are people who collect every stray opuscule by prolific and disparate authors -- Henry Miller, say, or Ezra Pound -- and they will forever be chasing down that one pamphlet printed in an edition of 12 in Orvieto in 1932.

    The Book Collection That Devoured My Life Luc Sante 2008

  • Boethius's theological opuscule known as De Hebdomadibus and Alan of Lille's Regulae Caelestis Iuris are presented as axiomatic but also esoteric, with the express statement of the author that their principles are not accessible to the many.

    Literary Forms of Medieval Philosophy Sweeney, Eileen 2008

  • St. Bonaventure, a disciple and spiritual son of the "Poverello" of Assisi, took up and developed this idea in an opuscule entitled "The Five Feasts of the Child Jesus."

    Zenit: Father Cantalamessa's 3rd Advent Meditation papabear 2008

  • Why, a man who can say of a Christmas book that “it is an opuscule denominated so-and-so, and ostensibly intended to swell the tide of expansive emotion incident upon the exodus of the old year,” must evidently have had immense sums and care expended on his early education, and deserves a splendid return.

    The Kickleburys on the Rhine 2006

  • Michel de Nostradamus, Excellent et moult utile opuscule à touts necessaire, Vicaire, Bibliographie, cols.

    Savoring The Past Wheaton Barbara Ketcham 1983

  • Excellent & moult utile opuscule à touts nécessaire, qui désirent auoir cognoissance de plusieurs exquises recepts.

    Savoring The Past Wheaton Barbara Ketcham 1983

  • Nostradamus, Excellent et moult utile opuscule à touts necessaire, 1555

    Savoring The Past Wheaton Barbara Ketcham 1983

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • When light fades to dim crepuscule

    Take heart in a new opuscule.

    A limerick writ

    Means brains that are fit,

    That time's not yet claimed a new fool.

    September 1, 2017