κόμη

Not explained with certainty. The word may be taken as "well-tended hair", in opposition of θρίξ (thríx, “hair”), and connected with κομέω (koméō, “to take care of, tend”). Schwyzer considers it a back-formation from κομάω (komáō, “to let the hair grow long”), which could be a by-form of κομέω (koméō). However, since κομάω (komáō) is always connected with hair and is never used in a different sense of "to care", and growing long hair is likely considered the opposite of caring for it, the assumption is not very probable.^[1] It has also been suggested as a Pre-Greek word with an element *ko- found in other branches of Indo-European and compared to Albanian qime (“thread of hair”). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

The consonant choice in this word is also suggestive of a Semitic word, in Akkadian one has 𒋦 (qimmatum, “tuft of hair; mane, plume; crown, crest”), akin to Arabic قِمَّة (qimma, “crown, peak”), Amharic and Tigre ጋሜ (gamme, “a kind of straight haircut, clean-shaven save for a circumferential strip at the nethermost part”). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

κόμη • (kómē) f (genitive κόμης); first declension

1. (collectively) hair of the head

   Synonym: πλόκᾰμος (plókamos)

2. gill or branchia of the cuttlefish
3. (botany) foliage of trees
4. (astronomy) luminous tail of a comet

• → Latin: coma (see there for further descendants)

• “κόμη”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “κόμη”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “κόμη”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• κόμη in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• κόμη in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• G2864 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible