cosmology
English edit
Etymology edit
From Medieval Latin cosmologia, from Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos, “world”) + -λογία (-logía, “treating of”), combination form of -λόγος (-lógos, “one who speaks (in a certain manner)”). By surface analysis, cosmo- + -logy.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
cosmology (countable and uncountable, plural cosmologies)
- The study of the physical universe, its structure, dynamics, origin and evolution, and fate.
- 2012 January, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist[1], volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 14 November 2012, page 23:
- We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.
- A metaphysical study into the origin and nature of the universe.
- A particular view (cultural or religious) of the structure and origin of the universe.
- Near-synonyms: cosmovision, worldview
- 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 130:
- But the work of Marshack and Leroi-Gourhan enable us to see that these later religions of the civilized period are elaborations of the cosmologies from the universal religion of the Upper Paleolithic.
Hyponyms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
study of the physical universe
|