cosmic, a.
(ˈkɒzmɪk)
[ad. Gr. κοσµικ-ός of the world or universe, f. κόσµος order, the world. Cf. F. cosmique.]
† 1. Of this world, worldly. Obs.
| 1649 J. Ellistone Behmen's Epist. vii. §13 He must turne from his Imagining in the Cosmick Spirit [in spiritu mundi] wherewith the soull is covered and disguised. |
2. a. Of or belonging to the universe considered as an ordered system or totality; relating to the sum or universal system of things. Also, universal; infinite; immense.
| 1846 Grote Greece (1862) I. xvi. 305 The one unchangeable cosmic substance. 1869 W. James Let. 21 Jan. in R. B. Perry Tht. & Char. W.J. (1935) I. 291 We can hope for much from education towards the development of cosmic sympathies (so to say) and disinterested sentiments. 1874 Blackie Self Cult. 11 Metaphysics is the knowledge of the absolute or cosmic reason so far as it is knowable by our limited individualised reason. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. vii. 109 The great cosmic law of gravitation. 1877 Clifford Lect. & Ess. (1886) 394 (title) Cosmic emotion. By a cosmic emotion—the phrase is Mr. Henry Sidgwick's—I mean an emotion which is felt in regard to the universe or sum of things, viewed as a cosmos or order. 1926 Encycl. Brit. III. 910/1 Einstein found that a world without matter could not be reconciled with his cosmic equations. 1935 B. Russell Relig. & Sci. ii. 24 If Man had the cosmic significance assigned to him in traditional philosophy. 1947 D. Aaron in Partisan Rev. XIV. 103 They suffer from a cosmic ennui which only lynchings and love-nests can mitigate. 1955 A. Powell Acceptance World 6 His habitual air of hardly suppressed irritation tended to cloak any minor emotion by the strength of its cosmic resentment. 1958 H. Nicolson in N.Y. Times 16 Mar. vii. 1/2 The Civil War..which..he regards..as a cosmic clash between strong men and massive principles. 1958 G. J. Warnock Eng. Philos. xi. 145 How undesirable..for philosophers to pretend to suffer from cosmic anxieties. 1968 T. L. Swihart Astrophysics & Stellar Astron. xxvii. 253 If the Universe is evolving or changing with time, then it can be used as a clock for the measurement of a universal or cosmic time. |
b. Relating to or dealing with the cosmos; cosmic philosophy = cosmism.
| 1874 Fiske Cosmic Philos. I. 98 The Cosmic Philosophy, which aims only to organize into a universal body of truth the sum of general conclusions obtained by science, adopts as the only trustworthy guide for its inquiries the method of science. 1879 Rydberg Magic Mid. Ages iv. 181 Supernatural ideas in cosmic philosophy will destroy reason, morality, human feeling. |
3. a. Belonging to the material universe as distinguished from the earth; extra-terrestrial. cosmic dust, minute particles of matter in space or of cosmic origin.
| 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (1879) II, Whether..the..molten condition of our planet was.. due to the collision of cosmic masses or not. 1881 Carpenter Microsc. & Rev. §706 The presence of extremely minute particles..which there is strong reason for regarding as cosmic dust. 1903 A. M. Clerke Probl. Astrophysics ii. iii. 189 The entire Orion region..is pervaded with cosmic fog. 1927 Eddington Stars & Atoms 67 This..demonstrates the existence of a cosmic cloud pervading the stellar system. 1958 New Statesman 23 Aug. 214/2 Jeans's volcanic ash has been replaced today by the theory of ‘cosmic dust’—a much more intriguing one. This maintains that the elemental particles from which the celestial bodies have been formed and which are travelling in Space get caught in the gravitational field of the moon and settle on it. 1962 Listener 29 Nov. 902/2 Studies of ‘cosmic dust’ in space. 1964 R. H. Baker Astron. (ed. 8) xvi. 465 A great complex of cosmic clouds is centered in the region of Scorpius and Ophiuchus. Ibid. 468 Interstellar lines..are absorbed in the spectra of stars by intervening cosmic gas. 1968 Nature 7 Dec. 1016/1 A good criterion for recognizing particles of cosmic dust on the Earth is the detection of radionuclides such as aluminium-26, formed by the action of cosmic rays on dust in free space. |
b. Characteristic of the vast scale of the universe and its changes; applied to the distances between the heavenly bodies, the periods of time occupied in their cycles, the velocity with which they move, and the like. In modern use spec. pertaining to space travel (freq. representing Russ. kosm{iacu}cheskiĭ cosmic: so cosmic rocket = space rocket, etc.).
| 1874 Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (1889) II. 195 The play between organism and environment through cosmic ranges of time. a 1893 Mod. What is the speed of an express train to the cosmic speed of a planet in its orbit? 1931 D. Lasser Conquest of Space (1932) iv. 54 If this rocket motor..were attached to a vehicle of any kind that vehicle could, again in theory, be propelled forward at almost cosmic velocity. 1959 Economist 10 Jan. 107/2 The world heard of Russia's ‘cosmic rocket..launched toward the moon’ early on the morning of January 3rd. 1961 Flight LXXIX. 300/1 When the speed of the rocket had reached the first cosmic speed, a heavy Satellite separated from the rocket, carrying a cosmic rocket on which was mounted an automatic interplanetary station. 1962 Daily Tel. 31 Aug. 21/3 Prof. Egorov said..‘Interplanetary stations..will serve for refuelling cosmic ships and so on. I think these cosmic flights are one more stage in making man master of cosmic space in flights round the earth and other planets.’ |
c. cosmic rays, high-energy radiations with great penetrative power which are incident on the earth from all directions and which originate in outer space (primary radiation) or are produced in the upper atmosphere by the primary radiation (secondary radiation). So cosmic radiation.
| 1925 Millikan in Nature 5 Dec. 824/2 Our experiments brought to light..a cosmic radiation of..extraordinary penetrating power... We obtained good evidence that these cosmic rays shoot through space in all directions. 1928 Nature Suppl. 7 Jan. 19/1 The cosmic radiation is defined as that small portion of the ‘penetrating radiation’ which is of cosmic origin. Ibid. 21/2 All this [sc. the experiments of Millikan and Cameron] constitutes pretty unambiguous evidence that the high altitude rays do not originate in our atmosphere, very certainly not in the lower nine-tenths of it, and justifies the designation ‘cosmic rays’. 1945 H. D. Smyth Gen. Acct. Devel. Atomic Energy Mil. Purposes viii. 79 All the piles depend on stray neutrons from spontaneous fission or cosmic rays to initiate the reaction. 1957 Encycl. Brit. VI. 496 B/2 Most of the primary cosmic rays collide with atoms in the air, making new particles to proceed at great speeds in nearly the same direction as the primaries. These new particles are called secondary cosmic rays. 1958 Sci. News XLVIII. 14 Cosmic rays are extremely energetic protons and other atomic nuclei which originate in the main in outer space. 1967 Condon & Odishaw Handbk. Physics (ed. 2) ix. xi. 273/2 It also appears now that the highest-energy cosmic-ray particles may be of extragalactic origin. |
4. Orderly, in good order; the opposite of chaotic. rare. Cf. cosmos.
| 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. (1865) I. i. i. 9 Alas, the Books are not cosmic, they are chaotic. 1867 ― Remin. (1881) II. 134 Rough nature I knew well already, but here it was reduced to cosmic. |
† 5. ‘cosmic disease, a synonym of Syphilis, from the universality of its prevalence’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
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Add: [3.] d. cosmic string: see *string n. 33.