Forms: 1 cuʓele, cuʓle, cuhle, [cufle], 1–3 cule, kuuele, cuuel, 3–4 couele, couel, kouel, 4 cole, 5–7 cowle, cool(e, 6 coule, 7 kowle, 8 coul, 7– cowl. [The derivation and form-history present difficulties. OE. renders L. cuculla by cuʓele, cuʓle, cuhle and cule, weak fem.; also cufle wk. f. The former comes down in 12–13th c. cūle, and the coule, cowle (coole) of later times; cufle may be the parent of kuuele (which in Ancren R. would regularly stand for kuvele), couele, kuuel, couel. OE. cuʓele is cognate with OHG. cucula, cugula, chugela (MHG. kugele, kugel, gugel, LG. kogel), a. eccl. Lat. cuculla monk’s cowl, from cl. L. cucullus hood of a cloak. OE. cufle appears to be cognate with MDu. covele, cövel(e fem., in Kilian kovel, mod.Du. keuvel ‘cowl,’ and to be connected with (perh. the origin of) Icel. kofl, kufl str. masc. ‘cowl.’ The history of cufle and its allied forms is obscure.]
1. A garment with a hood (vestis caputiata), worn by monks, varying in length in different ages and according to the usages of different orders, but ‘having the permanent characteristics of covering the head and shoulders, and being without sleeves’ (Cath. Dict.). † Also, formerly, a cloak or frock worn by laymen or by women.
The cl. Lat. cucullus was the hood of a cloak, covering the head only. The cowls of the early Egyptian monks covered the heads and barely reached the shoulders; by 800 the cowls of monks had become so long as to reach their heels, when St. Benedict restricted their length to two cubits. In the 14th c. the cowl and the frock were often confounded; but it was declared at the Council of Vienne ‘we understand by the name of cuculla a habit long and full, but not having sleeves, and by that of floccus a long habit which has long and wide sleeves.’ See Du Cange s.v. Cuculla.
c. 961. Æþelwold, Rule St. Benet, lv. (Schröer 89). Þætte he hæbbe cuʓelan [Wells MS. culan, Tiberius Gloss culam, L. cucullam] and syric; sy on wintra seo cuhle [W. cule, T. Gl. culam] of þiccum hræʓle. Ibid., 91. Þæt he hæbbe twa cuʓelan [W. culan, T. Gl. cuflan, L. duas cucullas]. Ibid., 93. Þæt is cuʓele [T. Gl. þæt is cufle].
a. 1100. O. E. Glosses, in Wr.-Wülcker, 328. Cuculla, cuʓle.
c. 1205. Lay., 17698. Seoðden ane cule of ane blake claðe [c. 1275 one blake couele].
c. 1210. Winteney Rule St. Benet, lv. (title), Sancte Benediht ȝywð munece cule and yesetteð mantel toȝeanes þære cule, and haliȝraft, forþan þe hit nis laȝa þat munecene habben cule; hodes hi maȝon habban.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 10. Unwise … þet weneð þet order sitte iðe kurtel oþer iȝe kuuele.
a. 1300. Havelok, 766. He ne broucte bred and sowel, In his shirte or in his couel. Ibid., 2904. Cuuel [rhymes with] sowel.
c. 1315. Shoreham, 110. Under couele and cope The foule prede lythe.
1388. Reg. Vestib. Westm. Abbey, in Archæol., LII. 214. A vestry gyrdyll to tukk up hys cole.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems, 110 (Mätz.). Madame … Undernethe your comly cowle to have myn intent.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 97. Cowle, munkys abyte, cuculla, cucullus.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 330/4. He dyde of thabyte of a bisshop and dyd on a cool and stode amonge the monkes.
1530. Palsgr., 209/2. Coule for a monke, froc.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1716, II. 17. It is not the … badges of our Religion that make a Christian; more than a Cowle doth make a Monk.
1682. S. Pordage, Medal Rev., 107. I know you’l grant the Devil is no Fool, He can disguise in Surplice, Cloak, or Cool.
1845. Sarah Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., I. 427. Luther … travelled indeed in a most lowly guise; the cowl he wore was borrowed.
1867. C. Walker, Ritual Reason Why, 201. The cowl is a loose vestment worn over the frock in the winter season and during the night office.
b. Taken as the sign of monkhood, or monastic orders, and hence sometimes as = MONK.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xl. The frock and cowle draw unto it self the opprobries, injuries and maledictions of the world.
1842. Tennyson, Talking Oak, xii. Bluff Harry broke into the spence And turn’d the cowls adrift.
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., I. i. 28. He was meant for the cowl, but his mother … let him make choice of the flat-cap.
2. Sometimes applied to the hood alone.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Capuchon, a coule or hood.
1639. Horn & Robotham, Gate Lang. Unl., lx. § 638. Monks hooded with cools.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 497, ¶ 4. The red Cap and the Coul will fall under the same Contempt.
1815. Moore, Lalla R. (1824), 205. Each affrighted sentinel Pulls down his cowl upon his eyes.
1849. Rock, Ch. of Fathers, I. v. 485. The cowl is the hood belonging to the monk’s every-day habit.
1858. Mrs. Oliphant, Laird of Norlaw, II. 6. [He] took off his cowl in token of respect.
3. transf. and fig.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 981. The first … hath as it were a grass cowle or hood which covers the head, neck, and almost half the body.
1852–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 174/2. Each of the cowls [of the Clio] seems … to be composed of two spherical parts.
1863. Kingsley, Water-bab. (1878), 1. By the smoky town in its murky cowl.
4. A covering, commonly shaped like a hood, placed on the top of a chimney or ventilating shaft to assist ventilation; usually constructed so as to turn with the wind. b. A wire cage at the top of the funnel of a locomotive, etc. See COW sb.5
1812. Ann. Reg., 315. The invention of a cap or cowl to be placed on the top of chimneys.
1862. Athenæum, 30 Aug., 263. Moveable cowl, intended to exclude rain and yet to allow the free passage of air.
1869. E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene, 129. Tubes with cowls turning towards the wind.
1883. J. Y. Stratton, Hops & Hop-pickers, 35. The kilns have high conical roofs, each surmounted by a cowl with vane.
1891. Times, 16 Oct., 8/5. The work of providing her [a battleship] with efficient ventilating apparatus is being pushed forward…. She will be furnished with the largest cowls afloat.
5. Comb., as cowl-like adj.; † cowl-man, one who wears a cowl, a monk; cowl-muscle, the cucullaris or trapezius muscle.
1592. Warner, Alb. Eng., VII. xxxvii. Our Cowleman’s foresaid Actor so prevailed.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner. & Ferns, 53. A small cowl-like depression.
