quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- comet[comet 词源字典]
- 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 etymology, comet origin, 英语词源] - 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.