cometes Latin · revision 35763

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=grc κόμη}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [kɔˈmeː.teːs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [koˈmɛː.tes]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''comētēs''' ''m'' (genitive comētae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Prudentius has a nominative ''comēta''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)

+ The ''Octavia'' ascribed to Seneca has an accusative ''comētam''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|κομήτης|tr=komḗtēs|t=long-haired; comet]],^(OLD 2012)^(Saalfeld 1874)^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010) from [[m|grc|κομάω|tr=komáō|t=to have long hair]] and ultimately [[m|grc|κόμη|tr=kómē|t=hair]],^(Wiktionary)^(Etymonline) the noun that Latin also borrowed as [[coma]].^(Wiktionary) The comet was the “long-haired” star because its tail looks like streaming hair.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Apart from one corrupt passage of Accius, the TLL records it from Cicero on,^(TLL) for a [[m|en|comet]] in the ''De natura deorum'' and the ''De divinatione''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It names a luminous body in the sky with a tail, a comet or [[m|en|meteor]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) It was often taken as a sign of disaster: Virgil says dread comets never blazed so often, and Tibullus calls a comet a sign of war;^(OLD 2012) Lucan speaks of the comet that overturns kingdoms.^(OLD 2012) In hexameter verse it stands only at the end of the line.^(TLL) Seneca devotes the seventh book of his ''Natural Questions'' to comets, using the word more than eighty times.^(TLL)

+

+ Pliny the Elder notes that the Greeks call these stars ''comētae'' and the Romans ''crīnītae'', “hairy ones”.^(TLL) Servius and a scholiast on Juvenal have an accusative ''comētem'', and Gregory of Tours writes ''comitis''.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Through Old French ''comete'', the Latin word gave English ''comet'' about 1200.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for a comet.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil treats comets as portents.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca writes a whole book on comets.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder gives ''crīnītae'' as the Latin name.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses the form ''comēta''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 1200 – English takes ''comet'' from Old French.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|comet]] or [[m|en|meteor]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # A comet as a [[m|en|portent]], especially of a great disaster.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|comet]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Servius explains that the comet is properly so called because it is surrounded by hair on either side.^(TLL) ''Comētēs'' is also a Greek personal name, borne in Ovid by one of the Lapiths.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}