cottage
/ˈkɒt.ɪd͡ʒ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms cottages cottaging cottaged
- noun A small house.
- noun A seasonal home of any size or stature, a recreational home or a home in a remote location. “Most cottages in the area were larger and more elaborate than my home.”
- noun (UK, slang, archaic) A public lavatory.
- noun (Polari) A meeting place for homosexual men.
- verb To stay at a seasonal home, to go cottaging.
- verb (intransitive, Polari, of men) To have homosexual sex in a public lavatory; to practice cottaging.
- proper noun A township in Saline County, Illinois.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Macon County, Missouri, United States.
- proper noun A village in Rivière du Rempart District, Mauritius.
Synonyms
cot hut bathroom latrine necessarium toilet toilet room urinal water closet WC cloaca closet jacques kocay siege cludgie neddy netty shield six bungalow
Etymology
Late Middle English, from Anglo-Norman cotage and Medieval Latin cotagium, from Old Northern French cot, cote (“cottage, hut”) + -age (“surrounding property”), from Old Norse kot, from Proto-Germanic *kutą, *kuta- (“shed”), probably of non-Indo-European origin, possibly borrowed from Proto-Finno-Ugric/Proto-Uralic *kota (“hut, tent”), probably akin to Proto-Iranian *kátah (“house; roof”). However, also compare Dutch and English hut.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Koate (“cottage, hut, small house”), Dutch kot (“ramshackle housing”), German Kate, Kote (“cot, cottage, hut”), Norwegian Bokmål kote (“cot, cottage, hut”), Norwegian Nynorsk kot, kott (“small house; small room”), Norwegian Nynorsk kote, kotto, kåte (“hut”), Swedish kåta (“cot, cottage, hut”), Ainu コタン (kotan, “village; town; island; land; country; place”), Akkala Sami куэһть (kueht’, “hut, tent”), Brahui کڈی (kuḍḍī / kuḍī, “hut, small house; wife”), Erzya кудо (kudo, “house”), Estonian koda (“building, house”), Finnish kota (“house, hut”), Hungarian ház (“house”), Kildin Sami куэдтҍ (kuedt’, “hut”), Komi-Permyak керку (kerku, “house, hut”) Komi-Zyrian керка (kerka, “house; family”), Livonian kuodā (“house”), Malayalam കുടി (kuṭi, “dwelling, house; hut; clan”), Moksha куд (kud, “house”), Mongolian хот (xot), ᠬᠣᠲᠠ (qota, “city, town”), Northern Sami goahti (“hut, tent; den, lair”), Southern Sami gåetie (“house; range; tent”), Tamil குடி (kuṭi, “ryot; tenants; citizens; family, household; descent, lineage; caste, race; house, mansion; village”), Udmurt корка (korka, “house, hut”), Ume Sami gåhtie (“tent”), Votic kõta (“house”); also Abkhaz ақыҭа (akəta, “village; community”), Armenian քաղաք (kʻaġakʻ, “city, town”), Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian ха́та (xáta, “house, hut”), Czech and Polish chata (“hut”), Gurani کەَ (ka, “house”), Pashto کلی (kəlay, “village”), Persian کده (kade, “house; village”), Northern Kurdish kedî (“domestic”), Yaghnobi кат (kat, “house”).
Old Northern French cote is probably from Old Norse kot (“hut”), cognate of Old English cot of same Proto-Germanic origin.
Slang sense “public toilet” from 19th century, due to resemblance.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [From Cot a cotttage.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “cottage”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details