the shape of the part is the shape of the whole?  As in, a branch is the same shape as the tree it comes from.  I’m going crazy here.

There is a Home for Boys here in the city where I live, and the entrance has a large sign which reads: “As the sprout is shaped, so grows the tree”.
What is it you are looking for?
And, by the way, welcome to the forums.

Thanks for the welcome Luke.  I’m looking for the word that means the part of the object is the same shape, only in miniature, as the larger object.  Or, conversely, perhaps I’m looking for the word that means the larger object gives off miniature shapes of itself.  I would look it up in the dictionary if I knew what the darn word is…dictionaries are a tad limited.

Well, in the hope that somebody comes on and knows the answer, I’ll mention that I asked your question on another site that I visit similar to this one.  Maybe someone can help here, and I’ll let
you know.  We’ll see what happens. I will offer here some online sites you can search somehow in the hopes of finding what you are looking for.  I know that not knowing the word can be
a dreadful place to start, but perhaps something will trigger a place to go.
http://myenglish.wikispaces.com/Page2
http://1828.mshaffer.com/d/word/bumpkin
http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/forums/
http://www.onelook.com/?w=torsk&ls=a
http://www.psy.uwa.edu.au/mrcdatabase/uwa_mrc.htm
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cache/perscoll_PersInfo.html
http://www.bartleby.com/61/82/B0128200.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/toast
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-mug1.htm
http://www.lexipedia.com/english/dubiety
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_page

Thank you again.  You’re a gem.

It seems to me that things are really slow on this site right now.  I’ll bet someone will log on with an idea soon.
And we’ll see if someone replies on the other site as well.  The only thing that comes to mind to me is “clone”, but I know that
is not what you are looking for.  So we’ll see.

No, not clone, it’s a seldom used word.

Concentric works, but only for circles.

Holes are full of holes; water is full of water.

So what’s the word - homogenous ?

No, it’s a really uncommon word.  Which is why I’ve forgotten it….  But thank you for trying.

Morphic ?

No, morphic can be any form.  But you are really thinking, thank you.

On the other thread I mentioned four words have been suggested:
FRACTAL
RECURSION
ENLARGEMENT
DIMINUTION

perhaps there will be more:  try a dicitionary search on these, maybe you will find it.

Thank you.  I will try a dictionary and thesaurus search.

Annabel - 01 March 2009 11:15 AM

the shape of the part is the shape of the whole?  As in, a branch is the same shape as the tree it comes from.  I’m going crazy here.

Strange as it may indeed seem right now, just try “fractal” for your missing adjective at least according to The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy 3.ed, Houghton Mifflin Co. 2005:

“Contraction of ‘fractional dimension.’  This is a term used by mathematicians to describe certain geometrical structures whose shape appears to be the same regardless of the level of magnification used to view them.  A standard example is a seacoast, which looks roughly the same whether viewed from a satellite or an airplane, on foot, or under a magnifying glass.  Many natural shapes approximate fractals, and they are widely used to produce images in television and movies.”

Yup, that seems to be it!
Fractal is it.

Me thinks you’re thinking of “microcosm.”

“The branch is a microcosm of the tree” doesn’t mean that the shape is the branch is the same a the tree’s. But it’s not the same, now is it? But it has the same sort of wood inside, and probably the same sort of bugs.