Cosmogenesis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process by which the universe came into being, including the origin and early development of cosmic structure
2. The scientific or philosophical study of how the cosmos first arose and took its present form
3. The creation or emergence of the universe from an earlier state, whether understood through physics or myth

Etymology: Cosmogenesis is a plain compound: "cosmo-", from Greek "kosmos" meaning "order" or "world", joined to "genesis", from Greek "genesis" meaning "origin" or "coming into being". Together they name the origin or creation of the universe, and the word is built the same way as "cosmogony", using Greek parts rather than a single inherited English term. The pattern is a modern one. Its parts were available to English writers for centuries, but compounds like this were assembled deliberately by scientists and philosophers when they needed precise vocabulary for describing the cosmos, rather than arising from everyday speech. Because the word is a transparent combination, its meaning follows directly from its parts, and little has shifted from the original Greek sense of "coming into being" applied to the world as a whole.

Synonyms: cosmogony, cosmogeny