Forms: 3–7 comete, 6 comette, Sc. comeit, 7 comett, commet, commeat, 5– comet. [In late OE. cometa, a. L. comēta (also comētēs), a. Gr. κομήτης wearing long hair, (ἀστὴρ) κομήτης long-haired star, comet; f. κομά-ειν to wear the hair long, f. κόμη the hair of the head, transf. the tail of a comet. Thence, early ME. comete, probably afterwards reinforced by F. comète, ad. L. comēta.]
1. A celestial body moving about the sun in a greatly elongated elliptical, or a parabolic orbit, and consisting (when near the sun) of a bright star-like nucleus surrounded with a misty light, and having a train of light or ‘tail,’ sometimes of enormous length, and usually directed away from the sun.
A comet remains visible from the earth only for a short time, i.e., while it is in a part of its orbit near the sun. They have in all ages been superstitiously regarded as heralds of strange or disastrous events.
1154. O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 1066. Sume men cwedon þat hit cometa se steorra wære, þone sume men hatað þone fæxedon steorran.
c. 1205. Lay., 17871. Þa isehȝen heo feorre ænne selcuðe sterre … Of him comen leomen i gastliche scinen. Þe steorre is ihate a latin comete.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 548. A sterre with a launce, þat comete icluped is.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 89. Comet sterre or blasynge sterre, cometa.
1549. Compl. Scot., vi. (1872), 58. Ane sterne … callit ane comeit; quhen it is sene, ther occurris haistyly eftir it sum grit myscheif.
c. 1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., I. i. 2. Comets importing change of Times and States, Brandish your crystall Tresses in the Skie.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 42/2. A Comett is the Embassador of some extraordinary matter.
1727. Thomson, To Mem. Sir J. Newton, 77. He, first of Men, with awful Wing pursu’d The Comet thro’ the long Elliptic Curve.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., IV. 706. Hast thou ne’er seen the comet’s flaming flight?
1868. Lockyer, trans. Guillemin’s Heavens, 269. It is now proved that most of the observed comets, if not all, form part of the solar system.
B. The Latin form was frequent in ME.; also stella cometa, varied with stella comata (see COMATE).
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VIII. xx. (1495), 331. Cometa is a sterre byclypped with brennynge gleymes.
1460. Capgrave, Chron., 225. A sterre thei clepe comata, directing his bemes rite onto Frauns.
1494. Fabyan, VII. ccxxvii. 256. The starre called stella cometa, or ye blasynge starre.
b. fig.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard., XX. (1599), 942. He seemed to bring certaine predictions and comets of his death.
1608. Bp. Hall, Char. Virues & V., I. 62. [The Good Magistrate] … the refuge of innocensie, the Comet of the guiltie.
1816. Byron, Churchill’s Grave. I stood beside the grave of him who blazed The comet of a season.
1878. Seeley, Stein, I. 332. The lurid comet of Napoleon’s fortune seemed likely to become a fixed star in the heavens.
† 2. An old game at cards. Obs.
1689. Shadwell, Bury F., I. i. Conversation … mixed now and then with ombre, trump, comet, or Incertain.
1693. Southerne, Maid’s last Prayer, III. iii. You have won above £600 of her at Comet.
1742. H. Walpole, Lett. H. Mann, 28 Aug. The evenings … Lady Mary, Miss Leneve and I play at Comet.
1864. Athenæum, No. 1922. 269/2. The Comet-game, otherwise called Manille.
3. Used as Eng. for Cometes, name of a genus of Humming-birds with long tails.
1862. Wood, Nat. Hist., II. 249. The Sappho Comet, or the Bar-tailed Humming Bird … is a native of Bolivia.
1866. Argyll, Reign Law, v. (ed. 4), 245. Two species of the Comets in which two different kinds of luminous reds or crimsons are nearly all that serve to distinguish the Species.
4. attrib. and Comb., as comet-capturing, -strewn adjs.; comet-finder, comet-seeker, a telescope of comparatively low power and having a large field, used in searching for comets; comet-tail, the tail of, or a tail like that of, a comet; comet-wine, wine made in a comet-year, popularly reputed to have superior flavor; comet-wise adv., in the manner of a comet; comet-year, a year in which a notable comet has appeared.
1887. Proctor, Other Suns than Ours, 121. The *comet-capturing ways of the giant planets.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, Sat. X. (1697), 271. Her comet-eyes she darts on ev’ry grace.
1837. Thackeray, Ravenswing, vii. I have some *Comet hock.
1871. trans. Schellen’s Spectr. Anal., § 53. 246. The telescope A, a *comet-seeker of 4 inches aperture and 30 inches focus.
1876. G. F. Chambers, Astron., 701. The comet-seeker is merely a cheap equatorial provided with an inferior object-glass and coarsely-divided circles.
1886. Proctor, in 19th Cent., May, 690. Regions of *comet-strewn space.
a. 1769. Falconer, Descr. Ninety-Gun Ship (R.). Its huge mast … From which a bloody pendant stretch’d afar Its *comet-tail, denouncing ample war.
1860. All Y. Round, No. 54. 87. Acquainted with Twenty port, and *comet vintages.
1828. Birmingham Mag., I. April, 203. The heat [of his temper] had been brought again to a suitable temperature,—or, as my friend would have had it, was carried off *comet-wise.
1839–48. Bailey, Festus, xiv. 207. A sword of fire curved comet-wise.
1871. M. Collins, Marq. & Merch., I. v. 159. Château Lafitte, of the *comet year.
