a. rare. [ad. late L. commatic-us, a. Gr. κομματικός consisting of short clauses: see COMMA.] Consisting of short clauses or lyric measures; of the nature of a commos.
1844. Beck & Felton, trans. Munk’s Metres, 333. The antistrophic commatic songs usually correspond with much art.
1879. L. Campbell, Sophocles (ed. 2), I. 271. The metre [of Œd. Col.] is studiously varied, above all in the remarkable ‘commatic parodos.’ Ibid., 279. The long scene [ll. 720–1043] … broken by short commatic passages.
2. Mus. Relating to the comma, as in Commatic temperament, any system of tuning whose object is to dispense with the comma of Didymus, and to make all major tones express the same interval.
1875. A. J. Ellis, trans. Helmholtz’ Sens. of Tone, 649. [terminology altered in ed. 2, 1885].
