Where did the word "chaos" originate?

Answer 1

Chaos (derived from the Greek Χάος, Chaos) typically refers to unpredictability. The word χάος did not mean "disorder" in classical-period ancient Greece. It meant "the primal emptiness, space". It is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root ghn or ghen meaning "gape, be wide open": compare "chasm" (from Greek χάσμα), and Anglo-Saxon gānian ("yawn"), geanian, ginian ("gape wide"); see also Old Norse Ginnungagap. Due to people misunderstanding early Christian uses of the word, the meaning of the word changed to "disorder". (The Ancient Greek for "disorder" is ταραχή.). Mathematically chaos means an aperiodic deterministic behavior which is very sensitive to its initial conditions, i.e., infinitesimal perturbations of boundary conditions for a chaotic dynamic system originate finite variations of the orbit in the phase space; see chaos theory.



cha·os (kā'ŏs')
n.
A condition or place of great disorder or confusion.
A disorderly mass; a jumble: The desk was a chaos of papers and unopened letters.
often Chaos The disordered state of unformed matter and infinite space supposed in some cosmogonic views to have existed before the ordered universe.
Mathematics. A dynamical system that has a sensitive dependence on its initial conditions.
Obsolete. An abyss; a chasm.

Answer 2

I think it was originally a Greek word and I think it might describe a limbo area between Hades and the living world. Not 1005 sure on that

Answer 3

In Greek mythology, chaos or Khaos is the primeval state of existence from which the first gods appeared. In Greek it is Χαος, which is usually pronounced similarly to "house", but correctly in ancient Greek as "kh-a-oss"; it means "gaping void", from the verb χαινω "gape, be wide open", Indo-European *"ghen-", *"ghn-"; compare English "chasm" and "yawn", Anglo-Saxon geanian = "to gape".

Answer 4

According to my Funk and Wagnall's dictionary, it was the Greek for 'abyss'.