Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), 1 February 2023
16 August 2023
A comet is a solar-system object consisting of a nucleus of ice and dust, which sublimates into a “tail” when its orbit takes it close to the sun. Short-period comets, those with orbital periods less than two hundred years, originate in the Kuiper belt, while long-period comets are thought to originate in the Oort cloud.
The word comet has a straightforward etymology. It was borrowed into Old English from the Latin cometa, which in turn comes from the Greek κομήτης (komete, long-haired), short for ἀστὴῤ κομήτης (aster kometes, long-haired star). The word’s use in English was subsequently reinforced by the Anglo-Norman comete.
The following is the account of the return of Halley’s Comet in the year 1066 that appears in the Worcester Chronicle:
Portion of the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the sighting of Halley’s Comet in 1066
MLXVI. On þissum geare com Harold cyng of Eoferwic to Westmynstre · to þam Eastran · þe wæron þa Eastran on þone dæg XVI. K[alends] Mai. Þa wearð geond eall England swylc taken on heofenum gesewen swylce nan man ær ne geseah. Sume men cwedon þ[æt] hit cometa se steorra wære · þone sume men hatað þone fæxedon steorran · & he ateowde ærest on þone æfen Letania Maior · VIII. K[alends] Mai · & swa scan ealle þa seofan niht.
(1066. In this year King Harold came from York to Westminster at Easter, which was the Easter then on the sixteenth Kalends of May [16 April]. Then was seen over all England such a sign in the heavens as no man had ever seen before. Some men said that the star was a comet, that some men call the hairy star, and it first appeared on the eve of Litania major, the eighth Kalends of May [24 April]. And it shone all the seven nights.)
Since antiquity, the appearance of a comet has been thought to be an omen of a momentous event or disaster. And in 1066 for once, that turned out to be the case.
Sources:
Anglo-Norman Dictionary, 2007, s.v. comete, n.
Dictionary of Old English: A to I, 2018, s.v. cometa, n.
Middle English Dictionary, 2019, s.v. comete, n.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, June 2017, s.v. comet, n.
Thorpe, Benjamin, ed. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, vol. 1 of 2. London: Longman, Green Longman, and Roberts, 1861, 336. HathiTrust Digital Library. London. British Library, Cotton MS Tiberius B.iv.
Image credits: Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF): David Wilton, 2023. This photo is licensable under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Bayeux Tapestry: Myrabella, 2013. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.