comess

English

Etymology

From Antillean Creole komès, from French commerce. Doublet of commerce.

Noun

comess (uncountable)

1. (Caribbean) Noise and confusion.
   • 2004, Aisha Khan, Callaloo Nation, →ISBN, page 211:

     As Jasmine told me emphatically, "facts" are knowledge -- of correct practices and their meanings -- and provide the antidote to the comess of mixed ways of knowing and of behaving.

   • 2012, Connie Wilkins, Steve Berman, Heiresses of Russ 2012, →ISBN, page 260:

     Somewhere in the comess, Beti had lost her headpiece.

   • 2014, J.W. Pulis, Religion, Diaspora and Cultural Identity, →ISBN, page 268:

     The seer man revealed that the "comess" (conflict, trouble, confusion) this man was experiencing was linked to cuckoldry (perhaps his own; this part of the story was left vague), explaining that the neighbors "had worked obeah” on him and his family, "put[tin] graveyard dirt and many other things in a buried heap" under the outside stairs.