| 释义 |
comet|ˈkɒmɪt|
Forms: 3–7 comete, 6 comette, Sc. comeit, 7 comett, commet, commeat, 5– comet.
[In late OE. cometa, a. L. comēta (also comētēs), a. Gr. κοµήτης wearing long hair, (ἀστὴρ) κοµήτης long-haired star, comet; f. κοµά-ειν to wear the hair long, f. κόµη the hair of the head, transf. the tail of a comet. Thence, early ME. comete, probably afterwards reinforced by F. comète, ad. L. comēta.]
1. a. A celestial body moving about the sun in a greatly elongated elliptical, or a parabolic orbit, and consisting (when near the sun) of a bright star-like nucleus surrounded with a misty light, and having a train of light or ‘tail’, sometimes of enormous length, and usually directed away from the sun.
A comet remains visible from the earth only for a short time, i.e. while it is in a part of its orbit near the sun. They have in all ages been superstitiously regarded as heralds of strange or disastrous events.
1154O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1066 Sume men cwedon þat hit cometa se steorra wære, þone sume men hatað þone fæxedon steorran. c1205Lay. 17871 Þa isehȝen heo feorre ænne selcuðe sterre..Of him comen leomen i gastliche scinen. Þe steorre is ihate a latin comete. 1297R. Glouc. (1724) 548 A sterre with a launce, þat comete icluped is. c1440Promp. Parv. 89 Comet sterre or blasynge sterre, cometa. 1549Compl. Scot. vi. (1872) 58 Ane sterne..callit ane comeit; quhen it is sene, ther occurris haistyly eftir it sum grit myscheif. c1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. i. 2 Comets importing change of Times and States, Brandish your crystall Tresses in the Skie. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 42/2 A Comett is the Embassador of some extraordinary matter. 1727Thomson To Mem. Sir J. Newton 77 He, first of Men, with awful Wing pursu'd The Comet thro' the long Elliptic Curve. 1742Young Nt. Th. iv. 706 Hast thou ne'er seen the comet's flaming flight? 1868Lockyer tr. Guillemin's Heavens 269 It is now proved that most of the observed comets, if not all, form part of the solar system.
(β) The Latin form was frequent in ME.; also stella cometa, varied with stella comata (see comate).
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. xx. (1495) 331 Cometa is a sterre byclypped with brennynge gleymes. 1460J. Capgrave Chron. 225 A sterre thei clepe comata, directing his bemes rite onto Frauns. 1494Fabyan vii. ccxxvii. 256 The starre called stella cometa, or y⊇ blasynge starre.
b. fig.
1579Fenton Guicciard. xx. (1599) 942 He seemed to bring certaine predictions and comets of his death. 1608Bp. Hall Char. Virtues & V. i. 62 [The Good Magistrate]..the refuge of innocensie, the Comet of the guiltie. 1816Byron Churchill's Grave, I stood beside the grave of him who blazed The comet of a season. 1878Seeley Stein I. 332 The lurid comet of Napoleon's fortune seemed likely to become a fixed star in the heavens.
†2. An old game at cards. Obs.
1689Shadwell Bury F. i. i, Conversation..mixed now and then with ombre, trump, comet, or Incertain. 1693Southerne Maid's Last Prayer iii. iii, You have won above {pstlg}600 of her at Comet. 1742H. Walpole Lett. H. Mann 28 Aug., The evenings..Lady Mary, Miss Leneve and I play at Comet. 1864Athenæum No. 1922. 269/2 The Comet-game, otherwise called Manille.
3. Used as Eng. for Cometes, name of a genus of Humming-birds with long tails.
1862Wood Nat. Hist. II. 249 The Sappho Comet, or the Bar-tailed Humming Bird..is a native of Bolivia. 1866Argyll Reign Law v. (ed. 4) 245 Two species of the Comets in which two different kinds of luminous reds or crimsons are nearly all that serve to distinguish the Species.
4. attrib. and Comb., as comet-capturing, comet-strewn adjs.; comet claret, claret made in a comet-year (cf. comet-wine); comet-finder, comet-seeker, a telescope of comparatively low power and having a large field, used in searching for comets; comet-tail, the tail of, or a tail like that of, a comet; comet-wine, wine made in a comet-year, popularly reputed to have superior flavour; comet-wise, adv., in the manner of a comet; comet-year, a year in which a notable comet has appeared.
1887Proctor Other Suns than Ours 121 The *comet-capturing ways of the giant planets.
1864Meredith Emilia in England xxxiii, There's seven bottles of my poort, and there's eleven of champagne and some *comut clar't.
1693Dryden Juvenal Sat. x. (1697) 271 Her *comet-eyes she darts on ev'ry grace.
1837Thackeray Ravenswing vii, I have some *Comet hock.
1871tr. Schellen's Spectr. Anal. §53. 246 The telescope A, a *comet-seeker of 4 inches aperture and 30 inches focus. 1876G. F. Chambers Astron. 701 The comet-seeker is merely a cheap equatorial provided with an inferior object-glass and coarsely-divided circles.
1886Proctor in 19th Cent. May 690 Regions of *comet-strewn space.
a1769Falconer Descr. Ninety-Gun Ship (R.), Its huge mast..From which a bloody pendant stretch'd afar Its *comet-tail, denouncing ample war.
1860All Y. Round No. 54. 87 Acquainted with 'Twenty port, and *comet vintages.
1839–48Bailey Festus xiv. 207 A sword of fire curved *comet-wise.
1871M. Collins Marq. & Merch. I. v. 159 Château Lafitte, of the *comet-year. |