Cosmogeny

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The theory or study of how the universe came into being and developed from its earliest beginnings
2. The branch of thought concerned with the origin and creation of the cosmos as a whole
3. An account of how the universe first arose, including the processes by which it was formed

Etymology: "Cosmogeny" is a modern scientific-style coinage, built from two Greek elements. "Cosmo-" comes from Greek "kosmos," which originally meant order or arrangement before it came to mean the orderly universe as a whole. The second element, "genesis," means origin, birth, or coming into being, so the compound literally names the origin of the universe. The word is a synonym of "cosmogenesis," and both belong to the same family of formations as "cosmology," the study of the universe as a whole. Like many such terms, it draws on ancient Greek roots without being an ancient Greek word itself. It was assembled deliberately from those classical building blocks to name the study of how the cosmos came to be, rather than handed down from Greek usage.

Synonyms: cosmogony, cosmogenesis