Also 5–7 coment, 6 com(m)ente, (commend). [a. OF. comment (-end, -and) commentary, ad. L. commentum invention, contrivance, enthymeme, (in Isidore) a comment or interpretation (see COMMENTARY); from comment-us, pa. pple. of commin-isc-or (root com-men-) to devise by careful thought, contrive, invent, f. *men-, root of mens, memini, etc. The mod. use corresponds to that of Isidore.]
† 1. An expository treatise, an exposition; a commentary. Obs.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 43. Galion seiþ in þe eende of his coment coold is moost grevous to a senewy lyme þat is woundid.
c. 1475. Babees Bk. (1868), 1. This tretys … this lytil coment.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, Ded. 141 (end of Bk.). I haue alsso a schort comment [v.r. commend] compild, To expon strange historeis and termes wild.
1530. Palsgr., Introd. 5. A thirde boke, which is a very comment and exposytour unto my seconde.
1609. Ben Jonson, Case is Altered, I. ii. He speaks all riddle … I must have a comment ere I can conceive him.
1703. T. N., City & C. Purch., 45. Barbaro … in his largest Edition of his Comment upon Vitruvius.
1877. J. D. Chambers, Div. Worship, 139. The middle three [lections] from some Comment on Holy Scripture.
2. A remark or note in explanation, exposition, or criticism of a literary passage; an annotation; a remark or criticism (on or upon anything).
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 106. For all Scripture new comentes to deuise.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. ii. 263. Forgiue the Comment that my passion made Vpon thy feature.
a. 1658. Cleveland, Wks. (1687), 11. Some Comments clear not, but increase the doubt.
1780. Cowper, Progr. Err., 494. Hence comment after comment.
1781. Crabbe, Library, 191. Bibles with cuts and comments.
1871. Ruskin, Munera P., Pref. (1880), 25. What few explanatory comments I have felt it necessary to add.
b. In extended and fig. uses.
1606. G. W[oodcocke], Hist. Ivstine, 127 a. Which wonder the southsaires interpreted to betoken a great … alteration … which according to … their coment happened.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. xv. Bella looked to Mrs. Boffin’s face for a comment on … this stormy humour in her husband.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., V. xxiii. 264. The names of the hostages … are a good comment on the mixed population of the Northern Kingdom.
3. collect. The expository or critical matter added to illustrate the text of a book.
1589. Pappe w. Hatchet (1844), 41. Beware my Comment, tis odds the margent shall be as full as the text.
1680. H. More, Apocal. Apoc., Pref. 31. The … Text … is printed … in a black English letter, the more easily to be distinguished from the Comment.
1756. Burke, Vind. Nat. Soc., Wks. 1842, I. 17. Some adopted the comment, others stuck to the text.
1859. Tennyson, Merlin & Vivien, 681. None can read the text, not even I; And none can read the comment but myself.
4. The action of commenting; animadversion, criticism, remark.
1847. Tennyson, Princ., III. 35. You need not set your thoughts in rubric thus For wholesale comment.
1878. Morley, Carlyle, Crit. Misc. Ser. I. 185. The fact that he should have taken no distinct side … has been the subject of some comment.
† 5. ‘Sometime it is taken for a lie or fayned tale’ (Bullokar, 1616; also in Cockeram, 1623). Obs. [So L. commentum: cf. also COMMENT v. 1.]
6. Comb. as commentless, comment-like adj. or adv.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 242. They Comment-like refer to this.
1836. Athenæum, 27 Feb., 155/3. The ‘Journey through Flanders,’ which, on account of the dislocation of the pictures criticized there, has become almost as confused as Drunken Barnaby’s through England, is reprinted commentless, doubly to addle the soft-headed reader who endeavours to arrange it.
1886. H. Merivale, in Temple Bar Mag., LXXVI. 550. The commentless record of such and such a letter.
