Also 5–9 cott. [OE. cot neut. (pl. cotu), in Lindisf. Gosp. also ? cott (dat. cotte, cottum) = MDu. cot (infl. cōte), Du. kot, MLG. and mod.LG. kot; also ON. kot (infl. koti) neut.:—OTeut. type *kutom. Beside this is found in same sense OE. cote (see COTE) = MDu. cōte, MLG. and mod.G. kōte (kothe) wk. fem., also sometimes in MLG. and Ger. dial. wk. masc. The form with tt found in Northumbrian is also in Rhenish dialects of G. from 14th c. kotte, but the gemination is not original, and merely marks the short vowel.
From the same root came OE. cýte, céte, prop. cíete cot, cell, chamber (whence app. ME. CHETE):—OTeut. *kautjôn-, in which kaut- is in ablaut relation to kut-.]
1. A small house, a little cottage; now chiefly poetical, and connoting smallness and humbleness, rather than the meanness and rudeness expressed by hut.
In OE. used more widely for ‘cottage, house, bedchamber, den.’ Sparingly represented in ME., in which cote and, later, cottage were more frequent terms. Cote in this sense having become obs., or merely dial., about 1625, cot has been revived as a poetical and literary term.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., III. ix. § 17. Æt ham æt heora cotum.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Luke xi. 7. Cnæhtas mino mec mið sint in cotte [c. 975 Rushw. Gosp. cote; Vulg. cubili]. Ibid., Luke xii. 3. Þæt in eare sprecend ȝie woeren in cottum [c. 975 Rushw. Gosp., in cotum; Vulg. in cubicults].
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt xxi. 13. Witodlice ȝe worhtun þat to þeofa cote [c. 1160 Hatt. Gosp. to þeof-coten].
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 362. We ne mei nout, wiðuten swink, a lutel kot areren.
a. 1325. Song Poor Husbandm., in Pol. Songs (Camden), 152. Seththe y counte ant cot hade to kepe.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 576/2. Cotagium, a cotage, or a cot.
1635. Quarles, Embl., III. xii. (1718), 174. Poor cots are ev’n as safe as princes halls.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Eclog., II. 36. O leave the noisie Town, O come and see Our Country Cotts, and live content with me!
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 259. Huts or cots of the mountaineers.
1748. Thomson, Cast. Indol., II. vi. Did to a lonely cott his steps decoy.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., I. 129. To every cot the lord’s indulgent mind Has a small space for garden-ground assign’d.
1849. E. E. Napier, Excurs. S. Africa, I. 178. A few humble fishermen’s cots.
1884. Dr. Huss, in Gustafson, Found. Death, ii. (ed. 3), 33. In cot as well as castle.
2. A small erection for shelter or protection, as for sheep, a bell, etc.; = COTE 2. Also in comb. as bell-, sheep-cot.
c. 1450. Nominale, in Wr.-Wülcker, 730. Hec caula, schepcot. Ibid., Hec barcaria, i. ovile, a schepcott.
1804. J. Duncumb, Hist. Hereford, Gloss., Cot, a barn for folding sheep.
1870. F. R. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 66. Lucker church [has] a cot for one bell placed on the western gable.
3. A case or protecting covering; a finger-stall; the covering of a drawing-roller in a spinning frame, etc. Now dial. or techn.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. I. ii. 21. In Moscovy … men … in time of snow, weare a cot or couer for their noses.
1828. Webster, Cot … a leathern cover for a sore finger.
1840. Spurdens, Suppl. Forby (E. D. S.), Cot, a case for a wounded finger.
4. Comb. (In OE. cot occurred in numerous compounds; later combinations often vary with cote-, and more recently cot- appears to be used as a contraction for cottar and cottage.) Cot-folk, cote-folk (Sc.), cottars, cottar-folk; cot-garth dial. (see quot.); cots-work, domestic work (cf. COT sb.5). Also COT-HOUSE, COTLAND, -ER, COTLIF, COTMAN, COTSET, COTSETLA, COT-TOWN.
1786. Burns, Twa Dogs, 69. What poor cot-folk pit their painch in, I own it’s past my comprehension.
1795. Pownall, Antiq. Romance, 157. As to the home or cots-work, that was done by the women and children of the family.
1876. Robinson, Whitby Gloss., Cotgarth, a small ground enclosure attached to a cottage.
