The Etymology of Cosmetic
Cosmetic and cosmos are the same Greek word, divided only by what they adorn. Greek 'kosmos' (κόσμος) meant order, arrangement, and ornament all at once — and according to ancient tradition, Pythagoras coined the use of 'kosmos' for the universe precisely because the universe is an ordered, beautifully arranged whole. From the same root came 'kosmein' (to arrange, to adorn) and 'kosmētikos' (skilled in adornment), and from there into Latin and French and finally English in 1605. At first 'cosmetic' could mean any kind of adornment — verbal, architectural, ritual; the sharpened sense of 'face paint, makeup' was dominant by the late 17th century. The English doublet 'cosmos' for the universe is also Greek, also from 'kosmos,' but it entered English much later (1848, partly through Alexander von Humboldt's German). Two arms of one word: the universe and a face cream.