Kosmos comes from a verb komizo which means "to take care of" or "to tend." Kosmos is primarily defined as "an orderly arrangement" of which the stars and planet were perceived as an example. I think a good English equivalent might be something like "design." which can refer to the Grand Design or to hair and makeup. Answer from brojangles on reddit.com
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/academicbiblical › why does the greek word kosmos mean world/worldly and adornment?
r/AcademicBiblical on Reddit: Why does the Greek word Kosmos mean world/worldly and adornment?
October 5, 2019 -

My apologies if I could articulate this better. Some people believe it is sinful to wear jewelry based on verses like 1 Peter 3:3-4. To me, for years I took it as moderation, a women’s beauty should first come from a godly character, and outward adornment is ok but should be used modestly.

However, while digging deeper, I noticed the Greek word for adornment in that passage is Kosmos, which in other places means world/worldly. Kosmos is also the word from which we get “cosmetics” from.

Pardon me for being new to this, but since they are the same word, does this mean adornment is worldly? If so how would we decipher what is acceptable clothing and not?

Thank you for your time!

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Kosmos comes from a verb komizo which means "to take care of" or "to tend." Kosmos is primarily defined as "an orderly arrangement" of which the stars and planet were perceived as an example. I think a good English equivalent might be something like "design." which can refer to the Grand Design or to hair and makeup.
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It is normal and expected that words will have more than one usage or even more than one meaning, and how these are the same word can be quite confusing to a non-native speaker. For a similarly fashion-based example, see how in English “suit” can mean “appropriate”, or refer to a type of card, or to men’s dress clothes. It all seems quite normal to someone very familiar to a language, but might seem chaotic and absurd to someone not. In regards to κόσμος in particular, the base meaning is related to order (I’m sure Greek scholars can point to better sources, but see Strong’s Concordance 2889 for a simple source readily available to everyone, or Thayer’s for an equally readily available, but much more thorough breakdown), and is often parsed without context as “something ordered”. It makes a little more sense to us outsiders then, that it should be translated as both “world” (since the world could be thought of as an ordered system of sorts) and “adorned” (as in “put into order”, after a way). Thayers seems to imply that the latter is actually the older and more basic meaning, but it’s not surprising that the former would be more common in the New Testament, It’s an easy trap to fall into to assume that a word translated one way in place should be translated that way elsewhere, but that’s not how languages work. There is very rarely a direct, perfect one-to-one correspondence that works for all meanings, usages, and contexts. I’d also keep in mind that the controversy over a single word doesn’t necessarily change the general meaning of an entire passage. Even if it were better read as “worldly garments” than as “adorned garments”, or even if “κόσμος” were missing entirely, that wouldn’t impact the appropriateness of your interpretation either way, in the context as a whole.
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Bible Study Tools
biblestudytools.com › lexicons › greek › nas › kosmos.html
Kosmos Meaning - Greek Lexicon | New Testament (NAS) | Bible Study Tools
Discover the original meaning of Kosmos in the NAS Bible using the New Testament Greek Lexicon - King James Version. Learn the audio pronunciation, word origin and usage in the Bible, plus scripture verse references of Kosmos.
Kosmos comes from a verb komizo which means "to take care of" or "to tend." Kosmos is primarily defined as "an orderly arrangement" of which the stars and planet were perceived as an example. I think a good English equivalent might be something like "design." which can refer to the Grand Design or to hair and makeup. Answer from brojangles on reddit.com
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Cosmos
Cosmos - Wikipedia
September 25, 2025 - The cosmos (/ˈkɒzmɒs/, US also /-moʊs, -məs/; Ancient Greek: κόσμος, romanized: kósmos) is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word cosmos implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity.
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Etymonline
etymonline.com › word › cosmos
Cosmos - Etymology, Origin & Meaning
1650s, "general science or theory of the material universe as an ordered whole," from Modern Latin cosmologia, from Greek kosmos (see cosmos) + -logia "discourse" (see -logy). By 1753 as "the branch of metaphysics which discusses the ultimate philosophical problems relating to th ... 1580s, "the whole world, cosmos, the totality of existing things," from Old French univers (12c.), from Latin universum "... ... a re-Latinized spelling, attested beginning mid-15c., of Middle English spere (c. 1300) "cosmos; space, conceived as a hollow...From late 14c. in reference to any of the supposed concentric, transparent, hollow, crystalline globes of the cosmos believed...
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Precept Austin
preceptaustin.org › world-kosmos
World - Kosmos (Greek Word Study) | Precept Austin
In classical Greek and the LXX, kosmos communicated the idea of order and adornment, and from this it developed into the basic term for the cosmos or the universe. The OT conception of the created world or kosmos was very different from the Greek notion, however.
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Vocabulary.com
vocabulary.com › dictionary › cosmos
Cosmos - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms | Vocabulary.com
Cosmos is originally a Greek word, meaning both "order" and "world," because the ancient Greeks thought that the world was perfectly harmonious and impeccably put in order. We now use cosmos without the idea of perfect order.
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Wiktionary
en.wiktionary.org › wiki › κόσμος
κόσμος - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
From Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos). Cognate with Mariupol Greek ко́смос (kósmos). ... Ζει σε άλλον κόσμο! Zei se állon kósmo! He lives in another world!
Find elsewhere
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bab.la
en.bab.la › dictionary › english-greek › cosmos
COSMOS - Translation in Greek - bab.la
warning Request revision These myths associate chaos with evil and oblivion, in contrast to order ("cosmos") which is the good.
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Wiktionary
en.wiktionary.org › wiki › cosmos
cosmos - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
It was first described and figured in 1797, by [Antonio José] Cavanilles, who called it Cosmos, from the Greek word Kosmos, beautiful; but this name was afterwards altered by [Carl Ludwig] Willdenow to Cosmea, as being more consistent with ...
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Oxford Reference
oxfordreference.com › display › 10.1093 › oi › authority.20110803095641467
Cosmos - Oxford Reference
The universe seen as a well-ordered whole; from the Greek word kosmos ‘order, ornament, world, or universe’, so called by Pythagoras or his disciples from their view of its perfect order and arrangement.
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Bible Tools
bibletools.org › index.cfm › fuseaction › topical.show › RTD › cgg › ID › 2045 › Kosmos.htm
What the Bible says about Kosmos
What the Bible says about Kosmos (From Forerunner Commentary) · In Ephesians 2:2, Paul writes of "the course of this world." The Greek word kosmos, translated into the English word "world," essentially means an "orderly system." To human eyes beholding all the activity throughout the earth, ...
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Quora
quora.com › What-is-the-difference-between-kosmos-and-universe-in-Greek
What is the difference between 'kosmos' and 'universe' in Greek? - Quora
Answer (1 of 5): “Κόσμος” (kosmos) and “Universe”. Two different words, from two different languages, meaning the same thing, or.. sort of! I'm explaining myself. The initial meaning of the two words was quite different. KOSMOS : ornament, decoration, good behaviour, propriety, harmony, ORDER,...
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Bible Tools
bibletools.org › index.cfm › fuseaction › Lexicon.show › ID › G2889 › kosmos.htm
Strongs's #2889: kosmos - Greek/Hebrew Definitions - Bible Tools
Strong's #2889: kosmos (pronounced kos'-mos) · probably from the base of 2865; orderly arrangement, i.e. decoration; by implication, the world (in a wide or narrow sense, including its inhabitants, literally or figuratively (morally)):--adorning, world
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Quora
quora.com › What-is-the-etymology-and-origin-of-the-words-cosmic-and-cosmas
What is the etymology and origin of the words “cosmic” and “cosmas”? - Quora
Answer (1 of 2): It is a Greek word. In Ancient Greek, ὁ κόσμος (ho kósmos, masculine word) meant all at once the universe, the cosmos, but also the ornament. This is why we say cosmetics for beauty products.
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Definitions.net
definitions.net › definition › cosmos
What does cosmos mean?
In the general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. The word derives from the Greek term κόσμος, literally meaning "order" or "ornament" and metaphorically "world", and is antithetical to the concept of chaos. Today, the word is generally used as a synonym of the Latin ...
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Blue Letter Bible
blueletterbible.org › lexicon › g2889 › kjv › tr › 0-1
G2889 - kosmos - Strong's Greek Lexicon (kjv)
κόσμος kósmos, kos'-mos; probably from the base of G2865; orderly arrangement, i.e. decoration; by implication, the world (in a wide or narrow sense, including its inhabitants, literally or figuratively (morally)):—adorning, world.
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Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
ndpr.nd.edu › reviews › cosmos-in-the-ancient-world
Cosmos in the Ancient World | Reviews | Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews | University of Notre Dame
And anyone with an ear attuned to the confluence of rhetoric and politics (or perhaps of societal order and good government) will be interested to learn that from a very early date the word was also the name of a chief magistracy in Crete, or that Thucydides used cosmos to mean 'government' more generally. Horky has organized the volume into four interconnected sections. Following his introduction, the first section covers the uses (and the doxographically purported uses) of cosmos in cosmology and cosmogony in more-or-less its most familiar senses; the second section looks at cosmos in ethical and political contexts; the third at the broad interplays that cosmos has in Greek and Latin culture (specifically theatre, augury, architecture); and the fourth at ideas of the cosmic sublime and cosmic themes in theology (two chapters).
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Ezra Project
ezraproject.com › kosmos-what-in-the-world
Kosmos: What in the World? – Ezra Project
In Greek, the most common word for “world” is kosmos (occurs 186 times). But that’s not the earliest meaning for the word.