Compositional elliptic etymology which identifies the first element as derived from a ghost verb *κάζω assumed to be the present matching the perfect κέκασμαι "to excel". From the perfect κέκασμαιwas derived a noun *κάσμος which is supposedly the etymon of κόσμος "order" (this explanation goes back to Philoxenus at least, see κόσμος / κέκασμαι). Here, κασσι- is related to κασ- of κέκασμαι, meaning "to be in order", but instead of the etymon, a semantic equivalent is given, in that case κόσμησιν (since κασ- was understood as meaning "order"). The complete formulation would be *τὴν κάσιν, ὅ ἐστι κόσμησιν, τηρῶν.