cottage

English
A thatched cottage in Herefordshire, United Kingdom.
A public toilet in London, United Kingdom.

Etymology

Late Middle English, from Anglo-Norman cotage and Medieval Latin cotagium, from Old Northern French cot, cote (“hut, cottage”) + -age (“surrounding property”), from Proto-Germanic *kutan, *kuta- (“shed”), probably of non-Indo-European origin, possibly borrowed from Uralic; compare Finnish kota (“hut, house”) and Hungarian ház (“house”), both from Proto-Finno-Ugric/Proto-Uralic *kota. However, also compare Dutch and English hut.[1][2]

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.

Pronunciation
  • (General American)
    • IPA(key): /ˈkɑtɪd͡ʒ/, [ˈkɑɾɪd͡ʒ]
    • (weak vowel merger) IPA(key): /ˈkɑtəd͡ʒ/, [ˈkɑɾəd͡ʒ]
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɒtɪd͡ʒ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Hyphenation: cot‧tage
  • Rhymes: -ɒtɪdʒ

Noun

cottage (plural cottages)

  1. A small house.
    Synonyms: cot, hut
  2. A seasonal home of any size or stature, a recreational home or a home in a remote location.
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ and if you don't look out there's likely to be some nice, lively dog taking an interest in your underpinning.”
    Most cottages in the area were larger and more elaborate than my home.
  3. (UK, slang, archaic) A public lavatory.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:bathroom
  4. (Polari) A meeting place for homosexual men.
    Synonyms: gingerbread office, tea room, tearoom, teahouse, (US) tea house

Derived terms

Descendants
  • → French: cottage

Translations

Verb

cottage (third-person singular simple present cottages, present participle cottaging, simple past and past participle cottaged)

  1. To stay at a seasonal home, to go cottaging.
  2. (intransitive, Polari, of men) To have homosexual sex in a public lavatory; to practice cottaging.

References
  1. Kroonen, Guus (2013), “kuta”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 313-14
  2. Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

Further reading

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English cottage.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /kɔ.taʒ/

Noun

cottage m (plural cottages)

  1. cottage

Further reading

Portuguese

Noun

cottage m (uncountable)

  1. cottage cheese (a cheese curd product)
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