The Collaborative International Dictionary
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Latin collective of comes, comitem "a companion, an associate" (see count (n.)).
Wiktionary
n. a group of warriors or nobles accompanying a king or other leader
WordNet
Wikipedia
Comitatus-the name for an Anglo Saxon kinship group Comitatus ( Latin for company, armed group) may refer to:
- Comes, a Latin word with similar meaning
- Comitatenses, the Roman late Imperial mobile army
- Comitatus (classical meaning), a political term used in various meanings, in Europe's classical period and in the Middle Ages
- County, in the Middle Ages, in the sense of a territory under a count — also used sporadically in present-day legal texts
- a Hungarian administrative unit:
- Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), in the Kingdom of Hungary
- Counties of Hungary, administrative units in today's Hungary
- an administrative unit in the First Bulgarian Empire ruled by a komita and further subdivided into several zhupi, each ruled by a zhupan. Also comitat or komitat.
Comitatus was a Germanic friendship structure that compelled kings to rule in consultation with their warriors, forming a warband. The comitatus, as described in the Roman historian Tacitus's treatise Germania (98.AD), is the bond existing between a Germanic warrior and his Lord, ensuring that neither leaves the field of battle before the other. The translation is as follows:
Comitatus, being the agreement between a Germanic lord and his subservients (his Gefolge or host of followers), is a special case of clientage and the direct source of the practice of feudalism. Partly influenced by the Roman practice, exemplified in the Marian Reforms initiated by Gaius Marius, of a general distributing land to his officers after their retirement, the Germanic comitatus eventually evolved into a wholesale exchange between a social superior and inferior. Comitatus is an Indo-European concept that predates Roman times and was practiced from Western Europe to China, especially among Eur-Asian Steppe tribes. The social inferior (in Feudalism, the Vassal) would pledge military service and protection to the superior (Lord). In return, the superior would reward the inferior with land, compensation, or privileges.
The Germanic term for the comitatus is reconstructed as *druhtiz, with Old English forms dryht and druht, and Scandinavian drótt.
Usage examples of "comitatus".
The ten men who head the Comitatus have enormous money, power, and reach.
At any rate, I uncovered hints of the existence of the Comitatus Decimus, the Company of Ten.
Sublimity therefore cause it to be known that any suits against them must be prosecuted in our Comitatus, the place of succour for the distressed and of sharp punishment for tricksters.
Heruli, who are suppliants to us, to come to our Comitatus at Ravenna.
But if you deny the fact, you are to bring your said wife to our Comitatus and there prove her innocence.
Diligently enquire into it, for the credit of our Comitatus is involved in our subjects being able to journey to it in safety.
The federal planners were hoping to avoid that extreme step, however, so to evade the restrictions of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prohibited the U.
They are the standing army, and the militia, jailors, constables, posse comitatus, etc.
It was like sending for the constable and the posse comitatus when there is only a carpet to shake or a refuse-barrel to empty.
Marslandmouth, where the whole posse comitatus pulled up breathless at the door of Lucy Passmore.
Army and then deputize them in order to get around the Posse Comitatus Act?
I Viterbesi, che come tutte le popolazioni Romane, avevano ordine dai comitati rivoluzionari di non muoversi e quindi non eran preparati alla pugna.