comet
pronunciation
How to pronounce comet in British English:
UK [ˈkɒmɪt]
How to pronounce comet in American English:
US [ˈkɑːmɪt]
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- Noun:
- (astronomy) a relatively small extraterrestrial body consisting of a frozen mass that travels around the sun in a highly elliptical orbit
Word Origin
- comet
- comet: [13] Comet means literally ‘the longhaired one’. Greek kómē meant ‘hair’, but it was also applied metaphorically to the tail of a comet, which was thought of as streaming out behind like a luxuriant head of hair being blown by the wind. Hence an astēr kométēs ‘longhaired star’ was the name given to a comet. Eventually the adjective kométēs came to stand for the whole phrase, and it passed via Latin comēta and Old French comete into English.
- comet (n.)
- c. 1200, from Old French comete (12c., Modern French comète), from Latin cometa, from Greek (aster) kometes, literally "long-haired (star)," from kome "hair of the head" (compare koman "let the hair grow long"), which is of unknown origin. So called from resemblance of a comet's tail to streaming hair.
Example
- 1. Some even think a comet did them in .
- 2. The comet is already visible in 7x50 binoculars .
- 3. If so , life may have started in a comet .
- 4. Astronomers proposed comet impacts as a possible cause for these catastrophes .
- 5. Researchers believe other comets are chemically similar to halley 's comet .