English
chaos
Chaos comes from Ancient Greek χάος ‘vast chasm, void’.
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEχάοςkháos‘vast chasm’
- Englishearliest quotation 1621chaos
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEχάοςkháos‘vast chasm’
- Englishearliest quotation 1621chaos
Earliest quotation: 1621, Democritus Junior pseudonym; Robert Burt, Aire rectified. With a digression of the Aire.: “What is in the centre of the earth, or…”
The story
The technical sense in mathematics and science dates from the 1960s.
Linked words
pairs
- chaos and gas both from Ancient Greek χάος ‘chasm’
through Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₂- ‘to yawn, gape’
goal, gap, gum, gill, hiatus, gab, gape, 10 more
through Ancient Greek χάος ‘vast chasm, void’
Today it means
noun The unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Ancient Greek χάος / chaos