Ylem Definition
(physics, astronomy, cosmology, now chiefly historical) In the Big Bang theory, the hot and dense plasma of which the cosmos consisted at the time of recombination in an early stage of its expansion and cooling, when the first atoms formed and photons decoupled, the source of the cosmic background radiation.
Origin of Ylem
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Resuscitation of Middle English ylem, one of several variants for the Medieval Latin hyle (“matter"), a transliteration of Aristotle's concept of “(fundamental) matter", in Ancient Greek ὕλη (hulÄ“, “wood(s), material(s), matter, subject") or πρώτη ὕλη (“fundamental matter").
From Wiktionary
Note: Claimed to have been found by Robert Herman in a large dictionary. In an interview Gamow also associated ylem with a Hebrew word, which should have been ילם (substantive “blind"), similar in pronunciation and appropriate for the hypothetical darkness of ylem.
From Wiktionary
First known to have been used in modern English by George Gamow in a paper coauthored with Alpher and Bethe titled "The Origin of Chemical Elements", published in Physical Review, April 1st, 1948.
From Wiktionary
Middle English universal matter from Old French ilem from Medieval Latin hȳlem accusative of hȳlē matter from Greek hūlē
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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