comans

Forms

comāns (genitive comantis); third-declension adjective of one termination^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin coma (“hair of the head”), and the OLD compares Ancient Greek κομάω (komáō, “to let the hair grow”).^[1][2] Conte treats it as the present participle of a verb ⟨comō⟩ “to have hair”,^[3] while the commentary on Virgil expanding Servius calls it a familiar participle, though there is no verb ⟨como⟩.^[4] The noun is a borrowing of Ancient Greek κόμη (kómē, “hair of the head”).^[1][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Virgil,^[7] who in the Georgics has the beards and hoary chins of he-goats and their saetas comantis, “flowing bristles”, and the late-leafing narcissus, sera comantem narcissum.^[1]

Semantic evolution

It is a poetic word for having long hair or being covered with hair, used especially of the neck of a horse, as in Virgil's colla comantia pectunt, “they comb the maned necks”.^[1][3] Of beards, manes and plumes it means flowing like hair, and of a helmet having a horsehair crest, as in the Aeneid and in Statius.^[1][2] Of plants it means leafy or in flower, and Statius uses it of grassy ground.^[1][3] Ovid has stella comans, a comet, with a trailing tail of flame.^[1][2] Valerius Flaccus calls the Tyndaridae astro comantes, “starry-haired”, and Gellius speaks of a horse with a flowing mane.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of goats' bristles, horses' manes, crested helmets and leafy plants.^[1][7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid has stella comans, a comet.^[1][7]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of long hair and of grassy ground.^[1][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having long hair, covered with hair; of horses' necks, maned.^[1][2]
2. Of beards and manes, flowing; of a helmet, having a horsehair plume.^[1][2]
3. Of plants, leafy, putting out leaves or flowers; of ground, grassy.^[1][3]
4. Trailing flame;^[1][2] stella comāns, a comet.^[1][2]

Word family

• auricomāns
• flāvicomāns
• glaucicomāns
• ignicomāns

Related words

• coma
• comātus

Usage notes

Stelten gives comātus, having long hair, beside it.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson