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1880, Lewis Swift, “The New Periodic Comet”, in Science, volume 1, number 21, page 258:
The computation of the elements of its orbit reveals the fact that they are almost identical with those of Comet III, 1869, and hence it becomes what in astronomical language is called a periodic comet.
2001 November 8, P. Clay Sherrod, Gian Trotta, “A History of the Leonid Storm”, in SPACE.com, retrieved 26 January 2016:
Comet Temple-Tuttle is what astronomers call a "periodic comet," one of hundreds that routinely and predictably continue to orbit the Sun.