microcategory

English

Etymology

micro- +‎ category

Noun

microcategory (plural microcategories)

1. A category that is a subset of a larger category (the macrocategory), especially one that has very few members.
   • 1994, Machine Vision Applications in Industrial Inspection, page 141:

     The procedure consists of microcategory detection, and feature matching to detect macrocategories.

   • 1995, Margaret Eletta Guider, Daughters of Rahab, page 109:

     In this dynamic, interrelated microcategory problems, such as prostitution and violence against women, are recognized as manifestations of macrocategory problems such as poverty and human rights.

   • 2004, Christian J. Kay, Jeremy J. Smith, Categorization in the History of English, page 75:

     Because such elements of conceptual information as (COUNTRY-BORN) and (CULTIVATING LAND) seem to be epistemologically central to the conceptual microcategory MAN OF THE COUNTRY, the semantics of such lexical categories as bumpkin, yokel, hick and dirt farmer allows us to relate the categories to a more marginal position in MAN OF THE COUNTRY; someone referred to as bumpkin, yokel, hick and dirt farmer is, by the same token, a less representative example of the category MAN OF THE COUNTRY than someone referred to as farmer, rustic, or peasant.