Other forms: comets
A comet is the dirty snowball of space that grows a glowing tail near the sun. Halley's comet, a bright comet, the comet's tail.
The tail always points away from the sun rather than trailing behind, because it is blown by the solar wind — so a comet leaving the sun goes tail first. Halley's returns every seventy-six years and is next due in 2061. The Greek name means long-haired.
1nouncometAn icy body that grows a glowing tail near the sun.
“Astronomers spotted a comet with a long bright tail moving slowly across the night sky.”
comet is a body in space.
Greek kometes means long-haired, short for a long-haired star, from kome, hair — named for the tail.
Ancient Greek
κομήτης — longhaired
Latin
comētēs
Old French
comete
Old English
comēta
Middle English
comete
English, today
comet
Built from
From Middle English comete, partly from Old English comēta and partly from Old French comete, both from Latin comētēs, from Ancient Greek κομήτης (“longhaired”), short for ἀστὴρ κομήτης ([astēr] komētēs, "longhaired [star])" and referring to the tail of a comet, from κόμη (“hair”). Compare English faxed star and Latin crīnīta stēlla (“comet”) literally “(long) haired star”.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA