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Etymology and origin of the English word cote

Pronunciation

cote1 shelter for animals

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1034 before 1034, Laws of Cnut
Inherited from
Old English cote via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *kutą

Etymology

The word for the shelter is inherited from Middle English cote,[2][3] inherited from Old English cote (“cottage, house”),[4][5][6][7] a feminine form beside the neuter cot, the source of cot1.[4][8][5][6] The OED finds the feminine form also in Middle Dutch, Middle Low German and modern German,[4] and Hoad and the Shorter Oxford compare Low German Kote.[6][9] Hoad derives it from Proto-Germanic *kutōn, related to the stem of cot,[6] which Kroonen reconstructs as *kuta- (“shed”), with Old Norse kot (“cottage, hut”) and Dutch kot.[10] Köbler compares it with Proto-Indo-European *geud- (“to bend, curve”),[11] and Kroonen notes that it is hard to separate from Finnish kota (“hut”).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cottage or house: before 1034, in the laws of Cnut, Gif hwilc man for-stolen þingc hám to his cotan bringe ("if any man bring a stolen thing home to his house").[7][4][5] Bosworth–Toller's Supplement notes that cotan here may be a dative plural of cot.[7]

Semantic evolution

The Old English sense, a small house of the kind poor people or labourers lived in, is recorded until 1869 and survives in dialect.[4][9] Wright recorded cote for a humble house or cottage in Scotland and in the northern and western counties from Northumberland and Yorkshire to Shropshire and Somerset.[12] The sense of a shelter for small animals appeared about 1300 according to Barnhart;[13] the OED's first quotation is from about 1420,[4] and Etymonline dates the use for animal sheds to the early 15th century.[8] Chaucer used cote three times, for a shed for animals and for a hut or cell.[14] The word now lives mostly in compounds such as dovecote, sheepcote and bell-cote, in which cot also occurs.[4][9] A verb, to put animals in a cote, is recorded from 1630 in Lincolnshire,[4] and a figurative use of the noun from 1868.[4]

Timeline

  • before 1034 – a small house, a cottage (now dialect).[4][5][7]
  • c. 1300 – a shelter for doves and small animals.[13] The OED's first quotation is from about 1420, in Palladius on Husbondrie.[4]
  • 1630 – verb, to put animals in a cote.[4][9]
  • 1868 – figurative use.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small shelter for animals such as pigeons, sheep or fowl, now mostly in compounds like dovecote and sheepcote.[15][2][4]
  2. A small sheltering structure, as for a bell.[2][4]
  3. (dialect) A small cottage.[15][2][4]

Verb

  1. To put animals into a cote.[4][9]

Word family

  • dovecote
  • sheepcote

cote2 to pass by, outstrip

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1555 H. Braham, on coursing
Borrowed from
Middle French cotoyer
Ultimate origin
Latin costa

Etymology

The word for passing by is of uncertain origin.[4][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes it as probably borrowed from Middle French cotoyer,[2][16] from costoier (“to run alongside”),[2][15] from coste (“side, coast”),[2] and the American Heritage Dictionary as probably from French côtoyer (“to skirt”), from côté (“side”).[17] The Shorter Oxford suggests coster (“to go along the side of, follow closely”) instead, from coste, Latin costa (“rib, side”).[9] The OED notes that etymologists have treated it as a doublet of the verb coast, but that a quotation of 1575 distinguishes cote from coast.[4] Chambers likewise calls a link with coast only possible.[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

In coursing, of one of two dogs running together: to pass its fellow so as to make the hare turn: 1555, in H. Braham's book for gentlemen.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

From the coursing term the verb was extended, from 1566 in Drant's translation of Horace, to passing by or going beyond in general, and so to outstripping or surpassing.[4][15] A noun for the action of a dog that cotes is recorded from 1575, in Gascoigne's notes on coursing with greyhounds.[4][9] Johnson (1755) knew the verb only from Chapman's Iliad, where it seemed to him to mean to leave behind or overpass.[19] Dictionaries now label the verb archaic, rare or obsolete.[15][2][9]

Timeline

  • 1555 – in coursing, of a dog, to pass the other dog and turn the hare.[4][2]
  • 1566 – to pass by, go beyond; to outstrip, surpass.[4]
  • 1575 – noun, the action of a dog in coting.[4][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (archaic or obsolete) To pass by; to go beyond, outstrip or surpass.[15][2][4]
  2. (obsolete) In coursing, of one of two dogs: to pass the other so that the hare is made to turn.[4][9]

Noun

  1. (obsolete) The action of a dog in passing its fellow and turning the hare.[4][9]

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster Unabridged also enters côte, from French côte (“slope, side, rib”), for a French hillside vineyard, often in the names of vineyards and their wines.[2] Wright recorded several unrelated dialect words spelled cote: a cat in Northumberland, the third swarm of bees from a hive in one season in Surrey, and, in Cumberland coal mining, a verb meaning to put to one side.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  12. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  13. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  15. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
  17. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  18. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
  19. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.

Related etymologies

  • beet · also from Old English
  • errand · also from Old English
  • drunk · also from Old English
  • then · also from Old English
  • bow · also from Old English
  • will · also from Old English
  • work · also from Old English
  • take · also from Old English
Cite this entry

“Cote.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/cote. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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