opuscule
Americannoun
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a small or minor work.
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a literary or musical work of small size.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of opuscule
1650–60; < French < Latin opusculum, equivalent to opus work + -culum -cule 1
Explanation
An opuscule is a small or minor work, such as a short piece of writing or a brief musical composition. While creating a great work of literature might be the dream of some authors, others are happy to publish even an opuscule. An opus is "a significant work or creation." Adding magnum ("great") before opus gives us magnum opus ("great work"), used for a person's greatest masterpiece. Adding the diminutive -cule ("small, little") to opus gives us opuscule, meaning "a small or minor work." An opuscule might be a short essay, a brief musical sketch, or a minor scholarly tract. An author might modestly refer to their own book as an opuscule to avoid sounding boastful. But the word is most commonly used for shorter literary, musical, and scholarly compositions.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
These sacred practices and many others, on which Lucian complacently enlarges in his opuscule on the goddess of Hierapolis, daily revived the habits of a barbarous past in the temples of Syria.
From The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism by Cumont, Franz
Giovanni Zucchetti, of Mantua, immediately followed with a similar opuscule: Lucrezia Borgia Duchessa di Ferrara, Milano, 1869.
From Lucretia Borgia According to Original Documents and Correspondence of Her Day by Gregorovius, Ferdinand
Besides the superficial opuscule of Lucian on the dea Syria, we find scarcely any reliable information in the Greek or Latin writers.
From The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism by Cumont, Franz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
