Etymologically
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comatus

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Forms

comātus (feminine comāta, neuter comātum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin coma (“hair”) + -ātus,[1][2][3] formed like a participle, though no finite verb stands behind it in Classical Latin; the present participle comāns is its companion.[3][2] The noun is borrowed from Ancient Greek κόμη (kómē, “hair of the head”).[1][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Catullus and Cicero on.[2] Catullus already uses it figuratively, of the “leafy forest” that his yacht once was before it became a ship (comāta silva).[1]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense is “having long hair”, often as a noun for a long-haired man: Seneca says that having one's hairs plucked is no less annoying to the bald than to the long-haired, and Martial and Suetonius use it of long-haired boys.[1][2] Solinus applies it to wolves with a mane.[2] Gallia Comāta, “long-haired Gaul”, was the name of the Gaul beyond the Alps outside the Roman province, as opposed to Gallia Togāta;[1][5] Cicero has it in the Philippics and Catullus, Mela, Pliny the Elder and Lucan after him.[1][5]

Medieval Latin used it as a noun for an untonsured man, a layman,[6] and, with stella or sīdus, for a comet, as in Roger Bacon.[6][7]

Timeline

  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus calls a forest comāta, “leafy”.[1][2][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of Gallia comāta.[1][8]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of long-haired people.[1][8]
  • first half of the 3rd century AD – Solinus applies it to maned wolves.[2][8]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville distinguishes it from comōsus.[2][8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Having long hair, wearing the hair long; as a noun, a long-haired man.[1][5]
  2. Gallia Comāta: Transalpine Gaul outside the Roman province.[1][5]
  3. (of trees) Leafy.[1]
  4. (Medieval Latin) As a noun, an untonsured man, a layman.[6]
  5. (Medieval Latin) stella comāta: a comet.[6][7]

Usage notes

Isidore distinguishes comōsus, said of hair that is cared for, from comātus, said of hair by nature, as in Gallia comāta; a later glossary gives the opposite distinction.[2] Priscian counts it among words that have the form of participles but no tense.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de