Words & WritingGreek → English
Comma
/ˈkɒmə/noun
The punctuation mark that separates elements within a sentence.
The Greek roots
κόμμα
kómma
a piece cut off
Literally: “something struck off”
Follow a root:κόμμα1 word
The story of the word
Κόμμα, from κόπτειν to strike or cut, first named a short clause rather than a mark. Greek rhetoricians analysed a period into κῶλα, limbs, and κόμματα, the shorter cuttings. The Latin grammarians took over the scheme, and when scribes began marking those divisions on the page the name of the segment transferred to the sign. Colon has the same history.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
colonperiodapocope
In a sentence
He put a comma where the sentence needed a full stop, and the meaning flipped.