κόσμοςkosmos

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Ancient Greek

Root

chenesa

to make clean, to make white, to purify, to make bright

Kosmos traced through PIE ḱens to Shona chenesa, to make bright

Confidence
30/100
Root language
Shona
Descent begins
κόσμος (kósmos)Ancient Greek

The consensus position

Mainstream comparative linguistics holds that κόσμος has no secure etymology; a derivation from PIE *ḱens- 'proclaim' and a link to κέκασμαι 'excel, be adorned' have both been proposed, and Beekes allows a Pre-Greek origin.

The working behind this.

The full descent — 5 links from the attested form down to the root — the segment-by-segment correspondences, the phonological breakdown and the case for the derivation are behind an account.

An account opens 10 entries in full, free.

Elsewhere in the corpus