κομάω

Forms

κομάω (komáō); contracted verb; aorist ἐκόμησα (ekómēsa); perfect passive participle κεκομημένος (kekomēménos); Epic participle κομόωντες (komóōntes), Doric third person plural κομόωντι (komóōnti).^[2] Ionic κομέω (koméō).^[3]

Etymology

It is a denominative verb from Ancient Greek κόμη (kómē, “hair of the head”).^[3][1][4] The origin of the noun is not explained with certainty.^[3][4] One view takes the noun as “well-tended hair”, as opposed to θρίξ (thríx), and connects it with κομέω (koméō, “to take care of”).^[3][4] Schwyzer even thought the noun a back-formation from κομάω, which would then be a variant of that verb, but Beekes and Chantraine object that κομάω always concerns hair and never means “to take care of”.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from the Iliad on, above all in the formula “the long-haired Achaeans” (κάρη κομόωντες Ἀχαιοί); Homer also uses it of the Abantes, who wore their hair long at the back, and of horses with flowing golden manes.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Herodotus the word describes the hair-styles of peoples, and he tells how the Spartans began to wear their hair long after a defeat of the Argives.^[6][8] At Athens long hair often suggested swagger, luxury or Spartan sympathies: in Aristophanes the knights ask not to be begrudged their long hair, and the Spartan craze makes everyone grow it.^[2][6] From there the verb came to mean to preen oneself or put on airs.^[6][2] Herodotus says a man “set his heart” on tyranny with it.^[6][2]

Poets used it of plants and fields that bristle with foliage or ears of corn, from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter to Theocritus and Apollonius of Rhodes, and Callimachus has a mountain clothed in forest.^[6][2] Aratus calls comets “long-haired stars”.^[6]

In the New Testament Paul argues that long hair is a disgrace to a man and a glory to a woman (1 Corinthians 11:14–15).^[8][6]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad calls the Achaeans long-haired and uses the verb of horses' manes.^[5][6][7]
• 6th century BC – Anacreon uses it of long-haired men.^[2][9]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of peoples' hair-styles and, figuratively, of aiming at tyranny.^[6][2][9]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of the knights' long hair and in the sense “to put on airs”.^[6][2][9]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus and Aratus use it of plants and of comets.^[6][9]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of a man who prides himself on his good looks.^[6][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To let the hair grow long, to wear long hair.^[6][2][8]
2. Of horses, to have a long mane.^[6][2]
3. To preen oneself, give oneself airs; with ἐπί and the dative, to set one's heart on something.^[6][2]
4. Of trees, plants and fields, to bristle or wave with foliage or ears of corn; in the passive, of a mountain, to be clothed with forest.^[6][2]
5. Of stars, to have a tail, as comets do.^[6]

Related words

• κόμη (kómē)
• κομήτης (komḗtēs)
• Latin coma

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
9. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge