comet

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“
We could also find a motorbike and drive thru super congested highways as the comet was about to strike .. lets say over water for example ... and then outrun a tidal wave traveling at over 400mph, up a mountainside to safety.

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Definitions (12)

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  1. noun A celestial body, observed only in that part of its orbit that is relatively close to the sun, having a head consisting of a solid nucleus surrounded by a nebulous coma up to 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) in diameter and an elongated curved vapor tail arising from the coma when sufficiently close to the sun. Comets are thought to consist chiefly of ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide, and water.
  2. Word History
    Comets have been feared throughout much of human history, and even in our own time their goings and comings receive great attention. Perhaps a comet might seem less awesome if we realized that our name for it is based on a figurative resemblance between it and humans. This figurative name is recorded first in the works of Aristotle, in which he uses komē, the Greek word for "hair of the head,” to mean "luminous tail of a comet.” Aristotle then uses the derived word komētēs, "wearing long hair,” as a noun meaning "comet.” The Greek word was adopted into Latin as comētēs, which was refashioned in Late Latin and given the form comēta, furnishing Old English with comēta, the earliest English ancestor of our word comet.

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Examples (50)

  • Douglas Kennett, an archaeologist, said its discovery of nanodiamonds -- diamonds visible only under a microscope -- associated with a layer of black soil containing burned debris shows that a comet was the cause, the Los Angeles Times reported. —  Latest News - UPI.com
  • I'm convinced that this comet is the one that has a spaceship behind it, for sure. —  Blog updates
  • We could also find a motorbike and drive thru super congested highways as the comet was about to strike .. lets say over water for example ... and then outrun a tidal wave traveling at over 400mph, up a mountainside to safety. —  digg.com: Stories / Popular
  • September 26, 2008 - A NASA capsule that collected the first samples from a comet is about to become part of a collection itself. —  collectSPACE Today In Space History
  • With a little imagination, they might look like the heads of mourning women with long, streaming hair -- and in fact, the word comet comes from the Greek word for "hair." —  Recently Uploaded Slideshows
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English comete, from Old English comēta, from Late Latin, from Latin comētēs, from Greek komētēs, long-haired (star), comet, from komē, hair.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English comete, from Anglo-Saxon comēta = French comète = Provencal Spanish Portuguese Italian cometa = Dutch komeet = G. Danish Swedish komet, from Latin cometa, also cometes, from Greek κομήτης (with or without ἀστήρ, star), a comet, literally long-haired (so called from the appearance of its tail), from κομᾶν, wear long hair, from κόμη, hair: see coma.
 

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/ˈkɑmɛt/
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