cosmology

Etymology

From Medieval Latin cosmologia, from Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos, “world”) + -λογία (-logía, “treating of”), combination form of -λόγος (-lógos, “one who speaks (in a certain manner)”). By surface analysis, cosmo- + -logy.

noun

1. The study of the physical universe, its structure, dynamics, origin and evolution, and fate.
   We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year. 2012-01, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 2012-11-14, page 23
2. A metaphysical study into the origin and nature of the universe.
3. A particular view (cultural or religious) of the structure and origin of the universe.
   But the work of Marshack and Leroi-Gourhan enable us to see that these later religions of the civilized period are elaborations of the cosmologies from the universal religion of the Upper Paleolithic. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 130