The word “cosmopolitan” is a globe-trotter — it encompasses the entire world. It comes from “cosmopolite,” a 16th-century English word derived from the Greek kosmopolitēs, meaning “citizen of the world.” When we hear “cosmopolitan” today, we are likely to think of the allure of big-city life, a pink martini, or an iconic women’s magazine. But the word has its roots in philosophy and politics.
The British Empire and a Worldly Citizenship
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the word “cosmopolite” was in 1577 in John Dee’s General and Rare Memorials Pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Nauigation. Dee, a mathematician, philosopher, and political adviser to Queen Elizabeth I, believed people should work toward being citizens of the world. In his book, he recommended that a person study “the State of Earthly Kingdoms, Generally, the whole World ouer” so he may “fynde hym self, Cosmopolites: A Citizen, and Member, of the whole and only one Mysticall City Vuniuersall.” (Remember that English spellings were not yet standardized in the 16th century.)
Dee’s advice seems like an admirable goal, but it was rooted in strengthening England’s power outside of Europe. He not only advocated for establishing English colonies in the New World, but he also is credited with coining the term “British Empire.” His directive to become a “cosmopolite” was predicated on Great Britain’s position as a world power.
As a noun synonymous with Dee’s “cosmopolite,” “cosmopolitan” came into use in the mid-17th century. It was another 200 years before “cosmopolitan” was used as an adjective, meaning “belonging to all parts of the world; not restricted to any one country or its inhabitants.”
The adjectival coining is attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson in his 1844 lecture “The Young American”: “…it cannot be doubted that the legislation of this country should become more catholic and cosmopolitan than that of any other.” (In this instance, “catholic” means “of universal human interest or use.”)
A Women’s Magazine, A Pretty Cocktail, A Way of Life
So, how did such a weighty word, steeped in philosophy, politics, and power, come to mean the height of sophistication? We turn to the newsstand: The Cosmopolitan was a family journal first published in 1886 by Schlicht & Field of New York. With articles titled “The Work of the Paris Impressionists in New York” and “The Exiled French Princes” alongside “The Daily Attire of the Wife” and “Proper Work and Recreation for Our Children,” the magazine both encompassed the ideals of being a “citizen of the world,” and offered practical advice on enhancing one’s home life.
In the 1890s, The Cosmopolitan evolved into a leading literary magazine that published some of the biggest names in fiction, including Mark Twain, Jack London, Edith Wharton, Rudyard Kipling, Willa Cather, and H.G. Wells, whose War of the Worlds was first serialized in the magazine in 1897.
In 1905, William Randolph Hearst purchased The Cosmopolitan, which he merged with Hearst’s under the rather lengthy title, Hearst's International Combined with Cosmopolitan. After Hearst’s death in 1951, the magazine became, simply, Cosmopolitan.
In the mid-1960s, under the editorial leadership of Helen Gurley Brown, the publication was reimagined as a magazine for the modern single career woman. Readership skyrocketed under Brown’s guidance, and Cosmo, as it would come to be known, became synonymous with free-spirited, sexy sophistication and “fun fearless feminism.” The transformation of the magazine contributed greatly to the evolution of the word “cosmopolitan” from political weightiness to glitzy city-life savviness.
Just as Brown put Cosmopolitan magazine and the “Cosmo girl” on the pop-culture map, it was the late-1990s HBO series Sex and the City that did the same for the cocktail. Drinks with similar ingredients existed before, but the formal invention of the cosmopolitan cocktail is attributed to a Manhattan bartender in 1987. A decade later, on SATC, party-girl Samantha ordered the pink drink at a wedding bar, and the cocktail became solidified in the lore of the show. For TV watchers across America, the combination of vodka, cranberry, lime, and Cointreau seemed to epitomize the glamorous New York lifestyle, but in a way that could easily be brought into their own homes.
While John Dee and Ralph Waldo Emerson might have envisioned their version of a “cosmopolitan” citizenship as decidedly less feminine — and less pink — there’s no doubt that “cosmopolitan” still conjures an image of the sophisticated and cultured world traveler.
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