[ansgri]

Is it not strange to call it an Atom? Atom is etymologically indivisible, when here we can have arbitrary structure.

[msbarnett]

Indeed it would be much more accurate to call it a Turtle, since it's Turtles all the way down.

(Under absolutely no circumstances should anyone actually do this)

[daeken]

Yeah, it is -- I've never found it to be a particularly great term, but it's what's used.

[lloeki]

Atoms can be linked together to form an arbitrary structure. After all, a tree is a graph.

[Evbn]

But once they are linked we call the linkage a molecule or compound.