: the informal and voluntary recognition by courts of one jurisdiction of the laws and judicial decisions of another

: the informal and voluntary recognition by courts of one jurisdiction of the laws and judicial decisions of another

d : the informal and voluntary recognition by courts of one jurisdiction of the laws and judicial decisions of another

Our country soweth also in the field of our breasts many precious seeds, as … honest behavior, affability, comity, wrote English clergyman Thomas Becon in 1543. Becon's use is the earliest documented appearance of comity - a word derived from Latin comitas, meaning "courteousness" (and probably related to the Sanskrit word for "he smiles"). Comity is largely used in political and judicial contexts. Since 1862 comity of nations has referred to countries bound by a courteous relationship based on mutual recognition of executive, legislative, and judicial acts. And, in legal contexts, comity refers to the recognition by courts of one jurisdiction of the laws and judicial decisions of another.

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'comity.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback .

There is no such comity between the country’s leaders now, analysts say.

Prone to endless laments of the lack of comity in Congress, the D.C. press corps applauded the display of unity in Washington.

The successful raid by U.S. troops on a compound in northwest Syria could provide the president a rare moment of bipartisan comity.

Yet, buried amid all the comity and light comedy was a serious pivot for Mr. Biden and his campaign from their primary messaging.

As the writer and producer Dan Taberski lays out in his six-part 2019 podcast, Running From Cops, the show helped usher in an age of comity between police and the media.

This coercive cultural turn threatens to devour what remains of America’s civic comity and push durable social progress on race and politics out of reach. ...

That comity and tolerance seems to be vanishing, with that generation of Americans replaced with a generation driven by the anger of extremists.

the comity that has always existed among the town's houses of worship

the comity that has always existed among the town's houses of worship

History and Etymology for comity

borrowed from Latin cōmitāt-, cōmitās "friendliness, courtesy, graciousness," from cōmis "kind, obliging, gracious" (probably going back to Old Latin cosmis, of uncertain origin) + -itāt- -itās -ity

Note: The Latin word cōmis (Old Latin cosmis, assuming that this word in the Duenos Inscription has been correctly identified) has traditionally been analyzed as *co-smei̯- "draw one's face into a smile," with the Indo-European base *smei̯- "laugh, smile" (see smile entry 1)—though a derivational mechanism for turning such a verbal compound into an unsuffixed adjective is left unspecified. An alternative explanation as a denominal adjective "having/accompanied by a smile" is possible (of the compound type represented by Greek éntheos "full of/possessed by a deity"), though there is no Indo-European evidence for a corresponding noun *smi- "smile."