κόσμος Ancient Greek · revision 2242

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=inherited|attested=Homer, Iliad|origins=ine-pro *ḱens-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /kóz.mos/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈkoz.mos/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈkoz.mos/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''κόσμος''' (kósmos) ''m'' (genitive κόσμου); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|grk-pro|*kónsmos]],^(Wiktionary) [[inh|ine-pro|*ḱónsmos]], a noun in -μος from the root [[m|ine-pro|*ḱens-|t=to announce, put in order]].^(Wiktionary)^(Beekes 2010) Beekes considers *ḱoNs-mo- the most probable reconstruction; it makes the word a relative of Latin [[m|la|cēnseō|t=to assess, estimate]] and Sanskrit [[m|sa|शंसति|tr=śaṃsati|t=to praise]], and the original meaning would have been “to put in order by speaking”, with “to adorn” a later development within Greek.^(Beekes 2010)^(Wiktionary) Within Greek it may be related to [[κέκασμαι|tr=kékasmai|t=to excel]].^(Etygram)^(Beekes 2010)

+

+ Frisk found none of the many proposals satisfactory: others had connected it with [[κεδνός|tr=kednós|t=careful, trusty]], with Latin [[m|la|corpus]] or with [[κομψός|tr=kompsós|t=refined]].^(Frisk 1960)^(Πάπυρος)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Homer uses it for order and for ornament: κατὰ κόσμον means “duly, properly”, and οὐ κατὰ κόσμον “in an unseemly way”.^(Cunliffe 1924)^(LSJ 1940) It is also an ornament for a horse and a woman's dress, and in the ''Odyssey'' the “making” of the wooden horse.^(Cunliffe 1924)^(CGL 2021)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Classical Greek it is order of every kind: the order of troops (fleeing “in no order”), good behaviour and discipline, and the order of a state, its constitution or government, as the Spartan constitution in Herodotus or the oligarchy in Thucydides.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021) The sense “ornament” continued, of dress, of equipment, and in rhetoric of the ornaments of speech in Isocrates and Aristotle.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021) It could also mean honour or credit: in Sophocles, “silence is a woman's ornament”.^(LSJ 1940) In Crete the chief magistrates were called κόσμοι.^(LSJ 1940)^(Beekes 2010)

+

+ In philosophy it became the ordered world, the universe, first with Pythagoras or Parmenides.^(LSJ 1940)^(Beekes 2010) Heraclitus says that “this cosmos” was made by no god or man, but always was, is and will be fire.^(LSJ 1940) Xenophon still speaks of “what the sophists call the cosmos”, but in Plato and Aristotle it is the normal term, and Epicurus speaks of many worlds.^(LSJ 1940)

+

+ In Koine it came to mean the world of men: the Septuagint uses it for the universe, the earth, mankind and ornament,^(Lust 2003) and the New Testament for adornment, for the inhabited earth, for the way of the world, and for people estranged from God, as in “what does it profit a man to gain the whole world?”^(BDAG 2000)^(UBS 2023)^(Πάπυρος)

+

+ Medieval vernacular Greek used it for an ornament, the universe, the earth or a country, mankind, and a crowd of people.^(Kriaras) Modern Greek [[m|el|κόσμος|tr=kósmos]] is the universe, the world and also people, society; some senses follow French ''monde''.^(Triantafyllidis 1998)^(Πάπυρος) English ''cosmos'' is recorded c. 1200, but became popular only after 1848, as the equivalent of Humboldt's ''Kosmos''.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Homer – The ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' use it for order and for ornament.^(Cunliffe 1924)^(LSJ 1940)

+ * 6th–5th century BC – Heraclitus says the world-order always was and will be fire.^(LSJ 1940)^(DGE)

+ * 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for the Spartan constitution, and Sophocles calls silence a woman's ornament.^(LSJ 1940)^(DGE)

+ * 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for the universe.^(LSJ 1940)^(DGE)

+ * 4th century BC – Aristotle describes the κόσμοι, the magistrates of Crete.^(LSJ 1940)^(DGE)

+ * 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for the world estranged from God.^(BDAG 2000)^(UBS 2023)

+ * c. 1200 – English ''cosmos'' is first recorded.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|order]]; κατὰ κόσμον, duly, properly.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ # Good behaviour, discipline.^(LSJ 1940)

+ # Form, fashion; the making of something.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ # The order of a state, its constitution or [[m|en|government]].^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ # [[m|en|ornament]], adornment, dress; ornaments of speech.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ # Honour, credit.^(LSJ 1940)

+ # ''(Crete)'' A chief magistrate, or the body of them.^(LSJ 1940)^(Beekes 2010)

+ # ''(philosophy)'' The world-order, the [[m|en|universe]].^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ # ''(Koine)'' The world, the earth; mankind; in the New Testament, the world estranged from God.^(Lust 2003)^(UBS 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[εὔκοσμος|tr=eúkosmos]]

+ * [[κοσμέω|tr=kosméō]]

+ * [[κόσμησις|tr=kósmēsis]]

+ * [[κόσμιος|tr=kósmios]]

+ * [[κοσμικός|tr=kosmikós]]

+ * [[κοσμητικός|tr=kosmētikós]]

+ * [[κοσμοπολίτης|tr=kosmopolítēs]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[la|cēnseō]]

+ * [[en|cosmopolitan]]

+ * [[en|microcosm]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Ancient grammarians derived κόσμος from [[κέκασμαι|tr=kékasmai|t=to excel]], which modern scholars also connect with it, or from κεῖσθαι ἅμα, “to lie together”.^(Etygram)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}