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Etymology and origin of the English word coma

Pronunciation

  • /ˈkoʊmə/[1]
  • UK: /ˈkəʊmə/[1]

coma1 deep unconsciousness

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1583, P. Barrough, Methode of Phisicke
Borrowed from
Latin coma
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek κῶμα

Etymology

The state of unconsciousness is borrowed from New Latin coma, recorded in medical Latin by 1543,[2][3][4][5] or directly from Ancient Greek κῶμα (kôma, “deep sleep, lethargy”).[2][6][4][7] The OED calls the Greek word of unknown origin and Etymonline of uncertain origin.[2][6] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster connect it with κάμνω (kámnō, “to toil, be weary”) and Middle Irish cuma (“grief, sorrow”), from an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *ḱem-;[8][3] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English instead relate it to κοίτη (koítē, “bed”) and κεῖμαι (keîmai, “to lie down”),[5][9][10] and Klein derives it from the root Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- (“to lie”).[11] The OED compares French coma, recorded by 1616.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A morbid state of excessive sleepiness or reduced consciousness: 1583, in Philip Barrough's Methode of Phisicke, according to the OED's revised entry.[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1646,[4][3] Etymonline to the 1640s,[6] and the Shorter Oxford to the mid-17th century.[9]

Semantic evolution

Early medical writers used the word for several conditions of unnatural heavy sleep, and Johnson (1755) defined it as a morbid tendency to sleep, a lethargy.[2][12][9] Later it came to mean specifically a prolonged state of deep unconsciousness from which the patient cannot be roused, caused by injury, disease or poison.[2][9][3] In Middle English such a state could be called false sleep (late 14th century).[6] Outside medicine the word has been used since 1798 for a state of lethargy, stupor or inactivity.[2][3] The adjective comatose is recorded from 1755.[4]

Timeline

  • 1583 – a state of morbid sleepiness.[2]
  • 1646 – Barnhart's and Merriam-Webster's first date.[4][3]
  • 1755 – comatose.[4]
  • 1798 – figurative, lethargy, stupor.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (medicine) A state of deep, prolonged unconsciousness from which a person cannot be woken, caused by injury, disease or poison: She was in a coma for two weeks after the crash.
  2. A state of lethargy or torpor: a long lunch followed by an afternoon coma.

Word family

  • comatose
  • semicoma

coma2 tuft; head of a comet

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1669
Borrowed from
Latin coma
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek κόμη

Etymology

The botanical and astronomical word is borrowed from Latin coma (“hair of the head, mane”),[2][6][4][3][13] from Ancient Greek κόμη (kómē, “hair of the head”),[2][6][4][5] which in Greek was also used of foliage and of the tail of a comet.[2] The Greek word is of unknown or uncertain origin;[6][8][11] it is also the source of comet.[5][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

In botany, a tuft of bracts at the top of an inflorescence, as in the pineapple: 1669;[2][4][3] the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English date the botanical sense to the early 17th century.[9][10]

Semantic evolution

In astronomy the word named the hazy envelope round the nucleus of a comet, from 1765 according to Barnhart and Etymonline[4][6] (a paper printed in 1766 in the OED).[2] Further botanical senses followed: a tuft of silky hairs on a seed (1830) and the leafy head of a tree (1870).[2] In optics it has meant, since 1867, the blurred, comet-like image of a point produced by lens aberration.[2][9] The constellation Coma Berenices, "Berenice's hair", keeps the Latin sense.[6]

Timeline

  • 1669 – (botany) a tuft of bracts.[2][4]
  • 1765 – (astronomy) the envelope round a comet's nucleus.[4][6]
  • 1830 – (botany) a tuft of hairs on a seed.[2]
  • 1867 – (optics) a blurred image from lens aberration.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (astronomy) The cloud of gas and dust round the nucleus of a comet.
  2. (botany) A tuft of hairs on a seed, or a tuft of leaves or bracts at the top of a plant.
  3. (optics) A blurred, comet-shaped image of a point, caused by a fault in a lens.

Word family

  • comal

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Coma.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/coma. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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