Acosmic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Characterizing a condition where there is no cosmos or universe
2. Denoting a presence defined by a lack of cosmic existence and material reality
3. Describing a state or quality where no cosmic order or universe exists

Etymology: "Acosmic" is built from the Greek privative prefix "a-", meaning "without" or "not", attached to "cosmic," which comes from the Greek "kosmos," meaning order, arrangement, or the ordered universe. The prefix does the work here: an acosmic thing is one that lacks that underlying order. The pairing is a transparent piece of English word-building. Its sense is the plain negation of "cosmic" in the sense of orderly or harmonious structure, not the wider sense of "pertaining to outer space" that "cosmic" has taken on in modern English. Readers meeting it for the first time can therefore work out its meaning directly from its two parts.