comă

Forms

comă f (plural come)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French coma, as DEX, MDA2, DN and Wiktionary give it.^[2][3][4][1] DELR names Modern Greek κώμα (kóma) beside the French word,^[5] and Ciorănescu also takes the medical sense from French.^[6]

The French word was borrowed in 1658 from Ancient Greek κῶμα (kôma, “deep sleep”), a word that Greek medicine had used for a lethargic state since Hippocrates.^[7] The Greek word means “deep, sound sleep” in Homer;^[8] its origin is unexplained, and Beekes rejects Brugmann's link with κεῖμαι (keîmai, “to lie”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is from 1760–1770, in a manuscript medical text, where the word is spelled coma.^[5] MDA2 gives a much later date, DN's second edition of 1968.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed medical: a prolonged loss of consciousness, sensation and movement, like deep sleep, caused by a brain haemorrhage, diabetes, uremia or other diseases.^[2][9] Șăineanu in 1929 and Scriban in 1939 still defined it as lethargic sleep.^[10][11] By extension it also means the agony before death.^[2][12]

In slang de comă means “extraordinary, terrific”: Dimitrescu quotes it from 1979 on, beside mortal “deadly” in the same sense.^[13][2] The derivatives came from French: comatos (1959), precomă (1967) and comatogen (1988).^[5]

Timeline

• 1760–1770 – coma in a medical manuscript, the first record.^[5]
• 1929 – “lethargic sleep” in Șăineanu's dictionary.^[10]
• 1959 – the adjective comatos.^[5]
• 1967 – precomă, the state that precedes coma.^[5]
• 1979 – the slang phrase de comă “extraordinary”.^[13]
• 1988 – comatogen “causing coma”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) coma: a prolonged total loss of consciousness, sensation and movement, like deep sleep: comă diabetică “diabetic coma”.^[2][12]
2. (by extension) agony, the last moments before death.^[2][3]
3. (slang) de comă: extraordinary, terrific.^[2][13]

Word family

• comatogen
• precomă
• comatos

Related words

• French coma
• Ancient Greek κῶμα (kôma)

Usage notes

DEX has a separate comă² from German Komma and French comma, the smallest musical interval, a phrasing sign in music and regionally (Transylvania) the comma, first recorded in Slavici in 1892.^[2][5][3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 209
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 467
4. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. comă
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. comă
6. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. comă
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b 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
9. ^ Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. comă
10. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 150
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 320
12. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 499
13. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. comă