chaos

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈkʰa.ɔs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkaː.os]^[1]

Forms

chaos n sg (genitive chaī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “chasm, void”).^[2][1][3] Etymonline traces the Greek word to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₂- (“to yawn, gape”).^[4][1] In Classical Latin only the nominative and accusative chaos and the ablative chaō are used.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil, in the Georgics, has the loves of the gods counted from Chaos onward.^[2][7] Köbler dates Virgil 70–19 BC.^[8]

Semantic evolution

It was the formless state of primordial matter, or the time of it, and personified Chaos, the father of Night and Erebus, in Virgil.^[2][6][7] It was also the boundless empty space thought of as the realm of darkness, the underworld, as Ovid's “by this huge Chaos and the silence of the vast realm”.^[2][5]

Christian and medieval writers used it of the abyss of darkness and confusion, of Hell, and of the great gulf in the parable of Lazarus in Luke.^[9][10] Medieval Latin also used it figuratively of disorder, desolation and shapelessness.^[10][8] English chaos is recorded in the late 14th century for a gaping void, and in the sense of utter confusion about 1600.^[4]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the primordial state.^[2][8]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the underworld.^[2][8]
• late 14th century – English chaos is recorded.^[4]
• c. 1600 – English chaos “utter confusion” is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The formless primordial state of matter, chaos, (personified) Chaos.^[2][1]
2. The underworld; boundless dark space.^[2][5]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) An abyss, a chasm, Hell.^[9]
4. (Medieval Latin) Confusion, disorder.^[10]

Related words

• English chaos
• English gas

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften