cosmos

Definition

The universe regarded as a system with harmony and order.

Etymology

From Middle English cossmos (“the universe; the world”), borrowed from Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos, “order; universe; the earth, the world; decoration, ornament”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱens- (“to announce, proclaim; to put in order”). The plural form cosmoi is a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κόσμοι (kósmoi).

Example Sentences

• "This doctrine [the nebular hypothesis] supposes all the material universe to have been once in a fluid or nebular condition, and that, by the operation of universal gravitation and the thousand other laws of nature, the nebular matter has been mainly aggregated into masses, and the existing cosmoi been developed."
• "It [the earth] was in the centre of the Kosmos; it remained stationary because of its equal distance from all parts of the outer revolving spheres; there was no cause determining it to move upward rather than downward or sideways, therefore it remained still. Its exhalations nourished the fire in the peripheral regions of the Kosmos."
• "Can you conceive a process by which you, an organic being, are in the same way dissolved into the cosmos, and then by a subtle reversal of the conditions reassembled once more?""

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