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κοσμητικός

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Etymology and origin of the Ancient Greek word κοσμητικός

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
500–300 BC Plato, Sophist More words from the 5th century BC
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek κόσμος
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos)
English cosmos
Ancient Greek κοσμέω (kosméō)
Ancient Greek κοσμητικός (kosmētikós)
English cosmetic
From the same root
Ancient Greek κοσμικός (kosmikós) ← κόσμος
English cosmopolitan ← κόσμος

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /koz.mɛː.ti.kós/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /koz.mi.tiˈkos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /koz.mi.tiˈkos/[1]

Forms

κοσμητῐκός (kosmētikós) m (feminine κοσμητῐκή, neuter κοσμητῐκόν); first/second declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek κοσμέω (kosméō, “to order, arrange; to adorn”) + -τικός (-tikós), the verb of κόσμος (kósmos, “order; ornament”).[1][2][3] Wiktionary analyses it as formed on the action noun κόσμησις (kósmēsis, “adorning”), Babiniotis on the agent noun κοσμητής (kosmētḗs, “one who adorns”).[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Plato's Sophist and Statesman, where the feminine, with τέχνη (tékhnē) understood, is the art of dress and adornment.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The Aristotelian Oeconomica uses it of someone skilled in ordering or arranging something, which Babiniotis takes as the original sense.[4][2] In the Roman period the neuter came to mean a cosmetic: a papyrus of the 2nd century AD has it, and Galen cites works on cosmetics by Crito and by Cleopatra.[4] Most of its uses in GLAUx are in Galen.[6]

Modern Greek κοσμητικός (kosmitikós) is a learned revival of the ancient word for “skilled in adornment”; in the grammatical term for an ornamental epithet it follows the New Latin (epitheton) ornans.[7] It also describes cosmetic treatments and surgery.[8] The English word cosmetic was taken about 1600 from the Latinized form of the Greek feminine, for the art of beautifying the body; its sense “a beautifying preparation” dates from the 1640s.[3]

Timeline

  • 5th to 4th century BC – Plato names the art of dress and adornment ἡ κοσμητική.[4][5]
  • 4th century BC – The Aristotelian Oeconomica uses it of someone skilled at arranging things.[4][2]
  • 2nd century AD – A papyrus uses the neuter for a cosmetic.[4]
  • 2nd century AD – Galen cites works on cosmetics by Crito and by Cleopatra.[4]
  • About 1600 – The English word cosmetic is first recorded, for the art of beautifying.[3]
  • 1640s – The English word comes to mean a beautifying preparation.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Skilled in ordering or arranging (with the genitive).[4][2]
  2. (feminine as a noun, with τέχνη (tékhnē) understood) The art of dress and adornment.[4][5]
  3. (neuter as a noun) A cosmetic.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  7. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  8. ^ Ακαδημία Αθηνών (2014), Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Academy of Athens
Cite this entry

“Κοσμητικός.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/grc/%CE%BA%CE%BF%CF%83%CE%BC%CE%B7%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%BA%CF%8C%CF%82. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

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