commaes

English

Noun

commaes

1. (obsolete) plural of comma
   • 1575, “William Medley, A Brief Discourse on Rhetorike (1575), Cecil Papers ms 238/6”, in Guillaume Coatalen, Two Elizabethan Treatises on Rhetoric: The Foundacion of Rhetorike by Richard Reynolds (1563) and A Brief Discourse on Rhetorike by William Medley (1575) (International Studies in the History of Rhetoric; 8), Leiden, Boston, Mass.: Brill, published 2018, →ISBN, pages 245, 250, 252, and 260:

     And yet although, for the most part Commaes, conteyn not aboue, six or seauen syllables, which number, is prescribed to them by Hermogenes,: Neuertheles, they may sometyme, be enlarged, furder, as those sentences, of Tully arre. […] Whearof the one conteyneth viii, the other ix syllables: But as they ar lengthned, so may they be contracted, and cutt shorter, when a sentence Hauinge manny syllables, is reduced to fewer, as to fyve, fower, three, or two: which ar the members of the least commaes / After this soart, ar Commaes, to be measured, when they ar not conteyned, in the compasse of periodes: […] it oftentymes chaunceth, that a Comma, is as Longe as a member, and a member, as shoart as a Comma, But the seuerall, and proper precepts, of Commaes, ar those, befoare mentioned. Thus much of Commaes: It foloweth in order, now to entreat of members […] Cap: 6 whowe Commaes and Members, ar ioyned in sentences / With Members in sentences, Commaes, ar often tymes ioyned: without anny full compasse, and periode: […] Howe Commaes, Members, and Periods, ar mingeled / In some sentences, Commaes, Members, and Periodes, ar mingled together thus […] But Aristotells definition, is bothe Larger and better, which demetrius Palereus, folowed in defininge a periode, to be, a composition of Commaes, and Members, appliable, to the persetinge of a sentence […] Finally the last and longest kynde, of compoundinge woords, and sentences, is called of the greake rhetoricians, of the latines, productio spiritus oratorii: which is a composition, of the oration, finishinge a sentence, with Commaes onely, and members, without full compasse of woords, and sentences,: and it is extended, and lengthened so farre, as the breath and strength of the orator, will suffer, and for that cause, is called productio spiritus

   • 1591, Henry Sauile, The Ende of Nero and Beginning of Galba. Fower Bookes of the Histories of Cornelius Tacitus. The Life of Agricola., Oxford, Oxon: […] Ioseph Barnes for Richard Wright:

     Some other ſmal eſcapes, as in the Greeke miſtaking of an accent or ſpirit, an ο for ω, an ε for an η or contrary; in the Latin an u for an n, the multitude or want the multitude or want of commaes, the darke printing and ſometime leauing out of a letter, as euident to euery one we haue not regarded.

   • 1615, μισοσυκος [pseudonym; Richard Brathwaite], A Strappado for the Diuell. Epigrams and Satyres Alluding to the Time, with Diuers Measures of No Lesse Delight., Boston, Lincs: […] Robert Roberts, […], published 1878:

     For other errors as the miſplacing of commaes, colons, and periods (which as they are in euerie page obuious, ſo many times they inuert the ſence) I referre to your diſcretion (iudicious gentle-men) whoſe lenity may ſooner ſupply them, then all my induſtrie can portray them.

   • 1621, [William Bathe], translated by William Welde, Ianua Linguarum, sive Modus Maxime Accommodatus, Quo Patefit Aditus ad Omnes Linguas Intelligendas. […], 4th edition, London: […] H. L. impensis Matthæi Lownes, page 55:

     A Parentheſis is made of two Commaes on each ſide.

   • 1630, Iohn Taylor, All the Workes of Iohn Taylor, the Water Poet, Being 63 in Number, Collected into One Volum by the Author with Sundry New Additions, Corrected, Reuised, and Newly Imprinted, page 29, column 1:

     The Poet at the Lawyer layes on loads, / Of Dactiles, Spondees, Annagrams and Oades. Of Satyres, Epigrams, Apoſtrophies. Of Stops, of Commaes, of Parentheſis.

   • 1644, David Pareus, translated by Elias Arnold, A Commentary upon the Divine Revelation of the Apostle and Evangelist Iohn, Amsterdam: […] C. P., page 419:

     Now the words of the Angell conſiſts either of one comma, here is the minde which hath underſtanding, to wit, hid: for, herein is a myſticall ſenſe that cannot be ſearched out by the mind of man: Or of two commaes, or clauſes, One being, Here is wiſedome: the other, he that hath wiſedome, that is, let him underſtand.

   • 1766, James Elphinston, The Principles of the English Language, Digested for the Use of Schools, London: […] W. Bowyer and J. Nichols: […], pages 215 and 220:

     Hooks indeed, though they may upon occaſion be equal to commaes, do not neceſſarily inſert a pauſe. […] Equal in time to the encloſure of two commaes, or even of a comma and ſemicolon, is parentheſis, encloſing with two ſegments of a circle an incidental member (though uſeful) uneſſential to the ſentence. […] Two commaes inverted, at least in the beginning, and ſometimes at the end, mark a citation or paſſage quoted; […]