cosmologie

Forms

cosmologie f (plural cosmologies)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin cosmologia, a word of scientific Latin used by Agrippa of Nettesheim in 1531; the first French record is in the translation of that same work.^[2][3][4] The TLFi and Wiktionary analyse it as cosmo- and -logie.^[2][1] Littré gives the Greek as Ancient Greek κοσμολογία (kosmología), from κόσμος (kósmos, “world, order”) and λόγος (lógos, “account, theory”).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1582 in Turquet de Mayerne's French translation of Agrippa's De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum, for the study of the world.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

With cosmographie (1512) and cosmogonie (1595) it was one of the first learned compounds in cosmo-, taken in the 16th century from Greek.^[4] It was long the science of the general laws that govern the physical world,^[5][2] and in philosophy the part of metaphysics that deals with the nature and origin of the world.^[2][8]

In the 20th century, under the influence of English cosmology, it took the sense of a general theory of matter in space-time,^[4][9] and it now names the science of the structure, origin and evolution of the universe as a whole.^[8]

Timeline

• 1531 – Agrippa of Nettesheim uses Latin cosmologia.^[2]
• 1582 – First record in French, with the adjective cosmologique.^[2][4]
• 1696 – The Journal des savants uses the word.^[7]
• Mid-20th century – It takes the sense of a general theory of matter in space-time, after English.^[9][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Cosmology: the science of the structure, origin and evolution of the universe as a whole.^[8][10][1]
2. (philosophy) The part of metaphysics that deals with the physical world, its nature and origin: cosmologie rationnelle, in Kant, the metaphysical problems concerning the world.^[2][8]
3. A theory of the formation and nature of the universe: la cosmologie des anciens Grecs.^[9][7]

Word family

• cosmologique

Related words

• cosmos
• cosmogonie
• cosmographie
• cosmique
• Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos)

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)