cosmos

plural cosmoses · plural cosmoi · alternative archaic kosmos

1. countableThe universe regarded as a system with harmony and order.

   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?"

   1929 January, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Disintegration Machine”, in The Professor Challenger Stories […], London: John Murray, […], published [1952], →OCLC, page 535

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   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.

   1850 August, “Art. V.—The Baron Humboldt’s ‘Cosmos.’ The Physical History of the Universe Explained and Displayed.”, in J[ames] D[unwoody] B[rownson] De Bow, editor, De Bow’s Review of the Southern and Western States, volume I (3rd Series; volume IX overall), number 2, New Orleans, La.: J. D. B. De Bow, →OCLC, page 153

   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.

   1865, George Grote, “Speculative Philosophy in Greece, before and in the Time of Sokrates”, in Plato, and the Other Companions of Sokrates. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, pages 6–7

   The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us—there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.

   1980, Carl Sagan, “The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean”, in Cosmos, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN, page 4

   Along with this question of order was the question of whether there was one cosmos or many ‘cosmoi’. Plato and Aristotle firmly believed that there was one unique cosmos that was in some way structured for the best. The atomists, on the other hand, believed that there were many cosmoi, separate from one another, in which everything happened by chance.

   2001, Andrew Gregory, “The Origins of the Cosmos and of Life: Consider Your Origins”, in Jon Turney, editor, Eureka! The Birth of Science (Revolutions in Science), Duxford, Cambridgeshire: Icon Books; Totem Books, →ISBN, page 98

   In seeking a satisfactory formulation of materialism, it helps to employ the notion of a possible world. Possible worlds are plausibly construed not literally as universes other than the single real universe (i.e., not as cosmoi), but rather as total ways the cosmos might be—i.e., maximal properties instantiable by the single real world (the single cosmos). On this usage, the item designated as the actual world—considered as one among the various possible worlds—is not itself the cosmos either, but rather is the total cosmos-instantiable property that is actually instantiated by the cosmos. But it will be convenient in practice to speak as though the actual world is the cosmos and as though other possible worlds are other such cosmoi — a harmless enough manner of speaking, as long as one bears in mind that it is not intended literally.

   2010, Terry Horgan, “Materialism, Minimal Emergentism, and the Hard Problem of Consciousness”, in Robert C[harles] Koons, George Bealer, editors, The Waning of Materialism, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part IV (Alternatives to Materialism), pages 309–310

   1. broadlycountableuncountableA harmonious, ordered whole.

      This simple cell is a cosmos in this respect: it represents the laws of the universe in changes of matter, and clearly exemplifies their workings in the oral cavity.

      1890 May 14, S. B. Palmer, “Matter and Force in the Oral Cavity”, in James W[illiam] White, editor, The Dental Cosmos: A Monthly Record of Dental Science. […], volume XXXII, number 7, Philadelphia, Pa.: The S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Co., […], published July 1890, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 538

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      Obviously, there are multiple cosmoses in the debate, out of which we picked four. The two first can be understood as compromise cosmoses. […] There is the cosmos of the reformer, which took by and large shape in the EDDP and which we entitled Public Future. Then there is the cosmos of the existing mode of ordering the city which by and large prevailed in the RDDP. […] Further, we present two cosmoses nurturing the strong opposition. They are both militant perspectives surging from the "civil society".

      2022, Tobias Baitsch, Amita Bhide, “Politics of Land Use Regulations”, in Luca Pattaroni, Amita Bhide, Christine Lutringer, editors, Politics of Urban Planning: The Making and Unmaking of the Mumbai Development Plan 2014–2034 (Exploring Urban Change in South Asia), Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 87

2. uncountableHarmony, order.

   He [Frederick I of Prussia] founded Universities, this poor King; University of Halle; Royal Academy of Berlin, [Gottfried Wilhelm] Leibniz presiding: he fought for Protestantism;—did what he could for the cause of Cosmos versus Chaos, after his fashion.

   1858, Thomas Carlyle, “King Friedrich I. again”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III, page 370

   Antonyms: chaos

1. countableuncountableAny of various mostly Mexican herbs of the genus Cosmos having radiate heads of variously coloured flowers and pinnate leaves.

   People were attracted to him as bees are attracted to cosmos or dahlia stalks.

   1947, R[asipuram] K[rishnaswami Iyer] Narayan[aswami], “An Astrologer’s Day”, in An Astrologer’s Day and Other Stories, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, →OCLC, page 1

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   This beautiful plant was discovered in Mexico, before 1789; as seeds of it sent to Madrid produced plants, which blossomed in that year in the Royal Botanic Garden of Spain. It was first described and figured in 1797, by [Antonio José] Cavanilles, who called it Cosmos, from the Greek word Kosmos, beautiful; but this name was afterwards altered by [Carl Ludwig] Willdenow to Cosmea, as being more consistent with the rules of botanical nomenclature.

   1840, [Jane] Loudon, “Compositæ”, in The Ladies’ Flower-garden of Ornamental Annuals, London: William Smith, […], →OCLC, pages 184–185

   COSMOS DIVERSIFOLIUS; var. atro-sanguineus. Various-leaved Cosmos; deep blood-flowered var. […] Seeds of this plant were received by Mr. Thompson, of Ipswich, from Mexico. It is doubtless a handsome species of Cosmos. The question is if it can be safely referred to any described species.

   1861, William Jackson Hooker, “Tab. 5227. COSMOS DIVERSIFOLIUS; var. atro-sanguineus.”, in Samuel Curtis, editor, Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, Comprising the Plants of the Royal Gardens of Kew and of Other Botanical Establishments in Great Britain; […], volume XVII (3rd Series; volume LXXXVII overall), London: Lovell Reeve & Co., […], →ISSN, →OCLC

   [P]atients with positive skin reactions to short ragweed pollen usually had positive skin reactions to cosmos.

   1984 December 31, Frank E[dward] Young, Margaret Heckler, “Biological Products; Allergenic Extracts; Implementation of Efficacy Review [21 CFR Parts 600, 610, and 680; Docket No. 81N-0096]”, in Federal Register, volume 50, part II (Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration), number 15, Washington, D.C.: Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration, published 23 January 1985, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3136, column 3

   The cosmos gives a perennial-like performance by reseeding, although the resulting flower may be different than the parent.

   2005, Norman Winter, “Annuals: Plants that Hustle”, in Tough-as-nails Flowers for the South, Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, →ISBN, page 24, column 2

1. pluralplural of cosmo

1. A city in Minnesota.