a. and sb. Obs. exc. as prec. Also 6–7 comorant(e. [ad. L. commorāntem, pr. pple. of commorā-ri to tarry, abide, f. com- + morāri to delay, tarry, f. mora delay.]
A. adj. Abiding, dwelling, resident.
Formerly applied technically, at Cambridge, to members of the Senate resident in the town (commorantes in villa) who were no longer members of their colleges: this became obsolete with the Act of 1856, which abolished the qualification of residence.
a. 1556. Cranmer, Wks., II. 277. If Davison be dwelling or commorant within my jurisdiction.
1606. N. B., Sidney’s Ourania, M iij b. If any on the earth were commorant.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, III. (1611), xx. 163. [Fowls] commorant in Woods, Forests, Heaths, etc.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 407. Unless they have been commorant there for ten Years.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 270. All freeholders within the precinct … and all persons commorant therein; which commorancy consists in usually lying there.
1888. Daily Tel., 22 March, 7/2. An Irishman … ‘commorant’ in Edinburgh.
† b. Of water: Standing, not running away.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. v. 10. Water Appropriate is either Commorant, viz. confined within the plot, or Current, not terminated within the limits thereof.
B. sb. A dweller, sojourner, resident.
(Also as in note to A.)
a. 1670. Hacket, Abp. Williams, I. (1692), 10. Rabbi Jacob, a Jew born, whom I remember for a long time a Commorant in the University. Ibid., I. 32. In all my time that I was a Commorant in Cambridge.
