Cosmographical

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Of or pertaining to the systematic description and cartographic representation of the Earth and the heavens
2. Concerning the study and depiction of Earth's features, celestial bodies, and their spatial relationships
3. Relating to the branch of knowledge that describes and maps the physical world and the cosmos

Etymology: Cosmographical is an adjective built from "cosmographic" plus the suffix "-al," which means "of or relating to." The base word combines the Greek "kósmos," meaning "order" or "world" (the sense that gave us "cosmos," the ordered universe), with "-graphy," from Greek "graphḗ," meaning "writing" or "description." Cosmography therefore literally means a written description of the universe as a whole. The "-ic" in "cosmographic" comes through Latin "-icus" and Old French "-ique," and the "-al" in "cosmographical" traces back to Latin "-ālis," reaching English through Old French. The suffix is a Latin adjective-former, so the whole word is a classical compound assembled from Greek and Latin parts.

Synonyms: geographic, geographical, cartographic, topographic