comment meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

comment

noun

UK /ˈkɒmɛnt/ · UK, SC /ˈkɔmɛnt/

Etymology From Middle English coment, comment, from Old French coment (“commentary”), from Late Latin commentum (“comment, interpretation”), from Classical Latin commentum (“invention, fabrication”).

A spoken or written remark.

I have no comment on that.
Pay attention to the teacher's comments in the margin of your marked essay.

2 more examples

“A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; and she looked it, always trim and trig and smooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action.1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
Santorum, in a comment regarding Senator John McCain's repudiation of torture, stated, "He doesn't understand how enhanced interrogation works. I mean, you break somebody, and after they've broken they become cooperative" (Summers 2011).2015 November 30, Shane O'Mara, Why Torture Doesn’t Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 12:

The act of commenting.

People bled to death like gentlemen in an operating room or expired without comment in an oxygen tent.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 168:

Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences The part of a sentence that provides new information regarding the current theme.

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Programming, Sciences A remark embedded in source code in such a way that it will be ignored by the compiler or interpreter, typically to help people to understand the code.

Derived terms: block comment, comment clause, commentize, commentless, comment section, commentworthy, conditional comment, C-style comment, fair comment, fairy comment, honest comment, letter of comment, metacomment, miscomment, no comment, notice and comment, public comment, sidebar comment, subcomment
Related terms: pragma

comment

verb

IN /kɔː.menʈ/

Etymology From Middle English commenten, comenten, from Latin commentārī (“to consider thoroughly, think over, discuss, write upon”).

To remark.

“My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
"A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there.[…]."1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

2 more examples

I think Mamet always comments that commerce really comes down to just a confidence game2003 July 5, Pierre Salinger, ABC News, “Analysis: Top film choices”, in NPR_Saturday:
As Cambridge historian Mervyn James commented, "silly quarrels escalated into battles in the streets."2009 Winter, John M. Kang, “Manliness and the Constitution”, in Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, volume 32, number 1, page 261:

With "on" or "about" To make remarks or notes; to express a view regarding.

He commented about your proposal.
The movie comments on race relations.

1 more example

We will first comment on the atypical flutter of our patient and then on the concept of opsoclonus/flutter of our patient and then on the concept of flutter upon convergence.2019, Aasef G. Shaikh, Stefano Ramat, editor, Mathematical Modelling in Motor Neuroscience: State of the Art and Translation to the Clinic, Gaze Orienting Mechanisms and Disease, volume 249, page 68:

Obsolete To comment or remark on.

[…]who have expounded Scripture out of its Senses, and have so Commented the Laws thereof1677, Lancelot Addison, A Modest Plea for the Clergy:

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences, Software Of code To insert comments into (source code).

I wish I'd commented this complicated algorithm back when I remembered how it worked.

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences, Software Of code To comment out (code); to disable by converting into a comment.

Derived terms: commentable, commentary, commentate, commentator, miscomment, recomment, undercommented, commentize, comment out, uncomment
Related terms: document

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