| 释义 |
comma|ˈkɒmə|
Pl. commas (formerly -aes); as L. or Gr., commata |ˈkɒmətə|.
[a. L. comma, Gr. κόµµα stamp, piece cut off, short clause, etc.:—*κόπ-µα, f. κοπ- root of κόπτειν to strike, cut.]
1. In Greek Rhet. and Prosody: A phrase or group of words less than a colon (q.v.). Hence, † A short member of a sentence or period.
1586A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 85 The last word of a comma, or member of a sentence. 1607Shakes. Timon i. i. 48 Poet. No leuell'd malice Infects one comma in the course I hold. 1609R. Barnerd Faithf. Sheph. (1621) 87 In words, phrases, commaes, and periods. 1711Addison Spect. No. 105 ⁋9 He has only rectify'd a Greek Particle, or laid out a whole sentence in proper Commas. 1713Bentley Rem. Free-thinking Wks. (ed. Dyce) III. 328 The next Comma of the passage is inexorabile fatum.
†b. A clause or short member of a treatise or argument. Obs.
1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. ii. 100 This being the hardest comma in the whole Discipline of Jesus is fortified with a double blessednesse. 1652L. S. People's Liberty ii. 3 The main argument..is bottomed upon part of the 7th comma of the 4. Chapter of Gen. 1671L. Addison W. Barbary 171 (T.) In the Moresco catalogue of crimes, adultery and fornication are found in the first comma.
2. A punctuation-mark [now,] used to separate the smallest members of a sentence. Also used to separate figures and symbols in arithmetic, chemical formulæ, etc.
‘The comparative length of the κόµµα and κῶλον have given origin to our terms of punctuation indicating the close of such shorter or longer clauses respectively, just as our ‘period’, or full-stop, marks the end of a περίοδος’. J. E. Sandys on Cicero's Orator §211.
The function of the comma is to make clear the grammatical structure, and hence the sense, of the passage; one of the means by which this is effected in actual speech is a short pause; hence the comma is often inaccurately said to be merely the mark of such a pause; see quots. under b.
[1530Palsgr. 39 With suche [point] as the Latins call comma thus made (:), or virgula thus made (,). ]1599R. B. 1st Bk. Preserv. Hen. VII, To Printer, Keepe points, and commas, periodes. 1661S. Partridge Double Scale Proport. 17 The Numerator is first expressed, and after it the Denominator right on in the line, with a comma betwixt, as..75,100. 1668Wilkins Real Char. 393 The Characters that serve for Interpunction, Comma, Colon, Period. 1847Emerson Repr. Men, Goethe Wks. (Bohn) I. 391 The commas and dashes are alive; so that the writing is athletic and nimble. 1853W. Gregory Inorg. Chem. (ed. 3) 27 The compounds which combine are joined, either by a + sign or by a comma.
b. (See note above.)
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. iv. [v.] (Arb.) 88 The shortest pause or intermission they called comma as who would say a peece of a speach cut of. Ibid. iii. xix. (Arb.) 222 A little pause or comma is geuen to euery word. a1637B. Jonson Eng. Gram., A comma is a mean breathing. 1824J. Johnson Typogr. II. 56 The comma..is considered the first from its requiring the shortest pause.
c. fig. = Break of continuity, interval, pause.
1602Shakes. Ham. v. ii. 42 As Peace should still her wheaten Garland weare, And stand a Comma 'tweene their amities. 1602Marston Ant. & Mel. iv. Wks. 1856 I. 51 Weele point our speech With amorous kissing, kissing commaes. 1622Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 335 Albeit that it seemeth no Comma can bee made (as it were) from the highest Climate to the lowest Center in regard of the litterall wordes. a1661Fuller Worthies (1840) I. 71 Though a truce may give a comma or colon to the war, nothing under a peace can put a perfect period thereunto. 1887Poor Nellie (1888) 285 A lady who writes so easily that there hardly seems to be a comma for her mind between any two subjects under the sun, and never a full stop.
3. Music. A minute ‘interval’ or difference of pitch; esp. (1) the comma of Didymus or common comma, which is the difference between four perfect fifths, and two octaves and a major third, from a given note (ratio 80 : 81); (2) the Pythagorean comma, or the difference between twelve perfect fifths, and seven octaves, from a given note.
1597Morley Introd. Mus. Annot., Betwixt mi and fa is not a full halfe note, but lesse than halfe a note by a comma. 1609Douland Ornith. Microl. 18 A Tone..consisting of two smaller Semitones, and one Comma. 1796Burney Mem. Metastasio II. 400 When I hear the greatest masters dispute whether the interval from one sound to another ought to consist of 5, 7, or 9 commas. 1879Grove Dict. Mus. I. 749 Bassett's comma valve..by which the error existing between major and minor tones may be corrected. Ibid. II. 333 Minor tones are less than major by a comma.
4. A mark, the same as that used in punctuation, but placed above the line as a quotation-mark: that at the beginning of the quotation or line is inverted, that at the end erect (thus ‘{ddd}’); and both are commonly doubled (thus ‘{ddd}’). Now called inverted commas.
1705Hearne Collect. 21 Nov. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) I. 89 Distinguish'd by commas (as y⊇ Printers call ym) at the side. 1784Watt in Phil. Trans. LXXIV. 330 note, To authenticate the date of the author's ideas, the parts of it which are contained in the present letter are marked with double commas. 1838–9Hallam Hist. Lit. III. iii. iii. 99 The reader must not take it for granted, even where inverted commas denote a closer attention to the text, that nothing is omitted. 1857H. H. Breen Blemishes Mod. Eng. Lit. 272 Without inverted commas, or any other marks to show that the writer intended it as a quotation. 1875Ure Dict. Arts III. 647/1 Turned commas, which designate extracts.
5. Any comma-like dot or point.
1801–15Fuseli Lect. Art x. (1848) 531 Of the milliards of commas, or points, that nature mediately or immediately produces, no two are alike.
6. comma (butterfly): a butterfly (Grapta Comma album) which has a white comma-shaped mark on the underside of the wing.
1749B. Wilkes Eng. Butterflies 57 The Comma-Butterfly breeds twice a year. 1797Donovan Brit. Insects VI. 45 In colours and markings the Comma Butterfly seems at first sight allied to Papilio Urticæ (Tortoiseshell). 1827Butterfly Collector's Vade-m. 68 English name, Comma.
7. comma (bacillus): a bacillus of curved shape, said to be present in cholera.
1886E. M. Crookshank Pract. Bacteriology 137 The curved rods, or commas, are about half the length of a tubercle-bacillus. Ibid. 140 The comma-bacilli are aerobic [= living in the air].
8. Comb., comma escapement, comma-shaped adj.
1807T. Young Lect. Nat. Philos. I. 196 The French have sometimes employed a construction [in watches] somewhat similar, which they call the comma scapement. 1884Ray Lankester in Pall Mall G. 6 Oct. 2/1 Dr. Koch had discovered a comma-shaped bacillus as the cause of cholera.
Hence ˈcomma v., to punctuate with commas.
1664H. More Myst. Iniq. 223 Grotius pretends the text is not rightly comma'd. |