atomic

Atomic is also a classic Italian manufacturer of stovetop espresso coffee machines, so dominant that the term is now used as the generic name for a stovetop coffee machine.

Atomic is also the name of one of the 1970's best loved punk-pop anthems, recorded by the New York City group, Blondie.

atomic adj.

[from Gk. `atomos', indivisible] 1. Indivisible; cannot be split up. For example, an instruction may be said to do several things `atomically', i.e., all the things are done immediately, and there is no chance of the instruction being half-completed or of another being interspersed. Used esp. to convey that an operation cannot be screwed up by interrupts. "This routine locks the file and increments the file's semaphore atomically." 2. [primarily techspeak] Guaranteed to complete successfully or not at all, usu. refers to database transactions. If an error prevents a partially-performed transaction from proceeding to completion, it must be "backed out," as the database must not be left in an inconsistent state.

Computer usage, in either of the above senses, has none of the connotations that `atomic' has in mainstream English (i.e. of particles of matter, nuclear explosions etc.).

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

A*tom"ic (#), A*tom"ic*al (#), a. [Cf. F. atomique.]

1.

Of or pertaining to atoms.

2.

Extremely minute; tiny.

Atomic philosophy, or Doctrine of atoms, a system which assuming that atoms are endued with gravity and motion accounted thus for the origin and formation of all things. This philosophy was first broached by Leucippus, was developed by Democritus, and afterward improved by Epicurus, and hence is sometimes denominated the Epicurean philosophy. -- Atomic theory, or the Doctrine of definite proportions Chem., teaches that chemical combinations take place between the supposed ultimate particles or atoms of bodies, in some simple ratio, as of one to one, two to three, or some other, always expressible in whole numbers. -- Atomic weight Chem., the weight of the atom of an element as compared with the weight of the atom of hydrogen, taken as a standard.

© Webster 1913.