Cossacks COSMOPOLITE, or COSMOPOLITAN, a term sometimes used to signify a person who has no fixed living or place of abode, or a man who is a stranger nowhere. The word comes from the Greek κόσμος, world, and πόλις, city.—One of the ancient philosophers being interrogated what countryman he was? answered, he was a cosmopolite, i. e. an inhabitant or citizen of the world.