Comet

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkɒmɪt/

Definitions

1. A celestial object consisting of ice, rock, and dust that orbits the sun and develops a luminous tail when passing near it
2. An icy celestial body with a rocky core that travels in an elliptical orbit around the sun and displays a glowing tail as it approaches the star
3. A space object composed primarily of frozen material and dust that circles the sun and becomes brilliantly visible with an extended luminous coma when nearing solar proximity

Etymology: The Greeks saw a comet's glowing streak as a head of hair. The ancient Greek "komētēs" meant "long-haired," and it was shortened from a phrase meaning "long-haired star," with the "hair" referring to the tail of the object, not its body. The root is "kómē," simply "hair," the same stem that gives us words for hair-like growths in other contexts. The word passed through Latin as "cometes," and English picked it up along two routes at once: Old English had "cometa" directly from Latin, while Old French supplied a later form that fed into Middle English "comete." The result is that English has the word twice over in its early record, both descending from the same Greek image. English also has a close cousin in the phrase "faxed star," an older English expression with the same meaning, built on the Latin "crinita stella," a "haired star." Each language reached for hair to describe the same sight, which is why the word's central idea has never really been about the ice or the rock at all.

Synonyms: celestial body, meteor