Etymologically
Log in

comans

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 14:07. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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
  • 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