Comma

Pl. commas (formerly -aes); as L. or Gr., commata. [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.

1586.  A. Day, Eng. Secretary, II. (1625), 85. The last word of a comma, or member of a sentence.

1607.  Shaks., Timon, I. i. 48. Poet. No leuell’d malice Infects one comma in the course I hold.

1609.  R. Barnard, Faithf. Sheph. (1621), 87. In words, phrases, commaes, and periods.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 105, ¶ 9. He has only rectify’d a Greek Particle, or laid out a whole sentence in proper Commas.

1713.  Bentley, 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.

1649.  Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., II. 100. This being the hardest comma in the whole Discipline of Jesus is fortified with a double blessednesse.

1652.  L. S., People’s Liberty, ii. 3. The main argument is bottomed upon part of the 7th comma of the 4. Chapter of Gen.

1671.  L. 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.

[1530.  Palsgr., 39. With suche [point] as the Latins call comma thus made (:), or virgula thus made (,).]

1599.  R. B., 1st Bk. Preserv. Hen. VII., To Printer. Keepe points, and commas, periodes.

1661.  S. 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.

1668.  Wilkins, Real Char., 393. The Characters that serve for Interpunction, Comma, Colon, Period.

1847.  Emerson, Repr. Men, Goethe, Wks. (Bohn), I. 391. The commas and dashes are alive; so that the writing is athletic and nimble.

1853.  W. Gregory, Inorg. Chem. (ed. 3), 27. The compounds which combine are joined, either by a + sign or by a comma.

  b.  1589.  Puttenham, 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.

a. 1637.  B. Jonson, Eng. Gram. A comma is a mean breathing.

1824.  J. Johnson, Typogr., II. 56. The comma … is considered the first from its requiring the shortest pause.

  c.  fig. = Break of continuity, interval, pause.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., V. ii. 42. As Peace should still her wheaten Garland weare, And stand a Comma ’tweene their amities.

1602.  Marston, Ant. & Mel., IV. Wks. 1856, I. 51. Weele point our speech With amorous kissing, kissing commaes.

1622.  Malynes, 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.

a. 1661.  Fuller, 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.

1887.  Poor 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.

1597.  Morley, Introd. Mus., Annot. Betwixt mi and fa is not a full halfe note, but lesse than halfe a note by a comma.

1609.  Douland, Ornith. Microl., 18. A Tone … consisting of two smaller Semitones, and one Comma.

1796.  Burney, 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.

1879.  Grove, 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 ‘…’); and both are commonly doubled (thus “…”). Now called inverted commas.

1705.  Hearne, Collect., 21 Nov. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), I. 89. Distinguish’d by commas (as y’ Printers call y^m) at the side.

1784.  Watt, 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.

1838–9.  Hallam, 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.

1857.  H. Breen, Mod. Eng. Lit., 272. Given as part of Mrs. Foster’s text, without inverted commas, or any other marks to show that the writer intended it as a quotation; yet the whole passage is copied word for word from Macaulay’s ‘Essay on Machiavelli.’

1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 647/1. Turned commas, which designate extracts.

  5.  Any comma-like dot or point.

1801–15.  Fuseli, 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) that has a white comma-shaped mark on the underside of the wing.

1749.  B. Wilkes, Eng. Butterflies, 57. The Comma-Butterfly breeds twice a year.

1797.  Donovan, Brit. Insects, VI. 45. In colours and markings the Comma Butterfly seems at first sight allied to Papilio Urticæ (Tortoiseshell).

1827.  Butterfly Collector’s Vade-m., 68. English name, Comma.

  7.  Comma (bacillus): a bacillus of curved shape, said to be present in cholera.

1886.  E. 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.

1807.  T. Young, Lect. Nat. Philos., I. 196. The French have sometimes employed a construction [in watches] somewhat similar, which they call the comma scapement.

1884.  Ray Lankester, in Pall Mall G., 6 Oct., 2/1. Dr. Koch had discovered a comma-shaped bacillus as the cause of cholera.

  Hence Comma v., to punctuate with commas.

1664.  H. More, Myst. Iniq., 223. Grotius pretends the text is not rightly comma’d.