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.
例文
1. They observed the comet for 70 days before it faded from sight.
彼らはこの彗星がゆっくりと視界から消えるまで70日間観察した。
2. Comet also sired the champion foal out of Spinway Harvest.
「彗星」はまた、「スティーブ?ハーヴェスト」とこの抜群の駒を生んだ。
3.We were not altogether sure that the comet would miss the Earth.
彗星が地球に衝突しないことを完全に確信することはできない。
4.The orbit of this comet intersects the orbit of the Earth.