I mean the phrase. I am not qualified to opine on matters cosmological. A scholar at Cornell has spent some time tracing the origin of that phrase and has released the results on the arXiv preprint server.  It certainly is one of the best examples of successful name-giving in science. Everybody who watches PBS or the Discovery Channel must have heard the term a thousand times.  We all take it for granted. But there was a time when there were no words to describe this phenomenon, which, I think exists because it’s pointed to by other evidence. Observations don’t make sense  unless you posit the BB at the beginning. But there I go, violating my own rules again. OK. I’ll be quiet.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.0219