Etymologically
Log in

coma

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:53. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /ˈkoʊmə/[1]
  • UK: /ˈkəʊmə/[1]

coma1 deep unconsciousness

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

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