Etymologically
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chaos

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈkeɪ.ɒs/ (UK); /ˈkeɪˌɑs/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chaos, earlier cahos,[2][3] borrowed from Old French chaos[3][4] or borrowed from Latin chaos,[2][5][4][3] from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “abyss, chasm, gaping void”),[2][5][3][4] from the PIE root *ghieh- “to yawn, gape”.[4] It is akin to chasm, yawn and gape.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A gaping void or chasm (c1440), chiefly from the Latin Bible's rendering of Luke 16:26.[7][4] Barnhart dates the form cahos to before 1396.[3]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod made Chaos the primeval emptiness of the universe, and Ovid opposed it to the ordered Kosmos;[4] through the Latin Bible's account of creation it came to mean the formless void out of which the ordered universe arose (1531).[7][4] From this theological sense came “utter confusion and disorder” (c1600) and “a confused mass” (1579).[7][4] In the 20th century mathematics adopted the word for behaviour governed by fixed laws that is nonetheless so sensitive to initial conditions that it appears random.[7][5][4]

Timeline

  • a1396 – cahos.[3]
  • c1440 – a gaping void or chasm.[7]
  • 1494 – the form chaos.[3]
  • 1531 – the formless void before creation.[7]
  • 1579 – a confused mass or mixture.[7]
  • 1606 – utter confusion and disorder.[7]
  • 1713 – chaotic.[3]
  • 1960 – (mathematics) apparently random behaviour of a deterministic system.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A state of utter confusion or disorder.
  2. A confused, disorderly mass; a jumble.
  3. The formless matter and infinite space supposed to have existed before the ordered universe; also its personification in Greek myth.
  4. (mathematics, physics) The inherent unpredictability of a complex system, in which tiny differences in starting conditions grow into large ones.
  5. (obsolete) A chasm or abyss.

Word family

  • chaotic
  • chaotically
  • chaos theory
  • chasm
  • gas
  • cosmos

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press