cover

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈkʌv.ə/, US /ˈkʌv.ɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English coveren, borrowed from Old French covrir (“to cover, protect, conceal”),^[2][3][4] from Late Latin coperīre,^[2][3] from Latin cooperīre (“to cover completely”),^[2][4] from co-, an intensive prefix, and operīre (“to close, cover”),^[2][4][5] from *op-werīre,^[6][3] with ob (“toward”),^[6] from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to cover”).^[2][4] covert is from the same root.^[5] The noun is from the verb, and partly a variant of covert.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

“To protect or shelter”: about 1150,^[3] or the mid-12th century, “to protect from harm”.^[2] The OED's first quotation for “to put something over” is from before 1300.^[9]

Semantic evolution

“To hide, screen” is from about 1300, and “to spread over the whole of a surface” from the late 14th century.^[2] Of a male animal, “to copulate with”, it is from the 1530s.^[2] Military “to aim at” is from the 1680s,^[2] “to travel over a distance” from 1818,^[2] and “to be enough for, compensate” by 1828.^[2] “To include, deal with” is by 1868, and the newspaper sense, to report on an event, from 1893.^[2] In betting, to cover is to match a stake, by 1857.^[2] “To stand in for an absent colleague” is by 1970.^[2] The noun, a thing laid over something, is from the mid-14th century,^[2] shelter from about 1500,^[2] and in hunting, the thickets that hide game, from 1719.^[2] The binding of a book is from the 1590s.^[2] A recording of a song already recorded by another is by 1970, short for cover version, from 1966.^[2] The cover charge, by 1913, keeps an old sense of cover, the place setting of one diner, from French couvert.^[2][10]

Timeline

• c. 1150 – to protect, shelter.^[3]
• c. 1300 – to hide.^[2]
• mid-14th century – noun, a covering.^[2]
• 1590s – a book cover.^[2]
• 1680s – to aim a gun at.^[2]
• 1719 – cover for game.^[2]
• 1818 – to travel over.^[2]
• 1893 – to report on.^[2]
• 1913 – cover charge.^[2]
• 1966 – cover version.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To put something over or upon, so as to protect or hide it.
2. To spread over the surface of.
3. To deal with or include: the book covers the war.
4. To travel over a distance.
5. To report on for the news.
6. To be enough to pay for; to insure.
7. To protect by aiming a weapon; to aim at.
8. To stand in for someone who is absent.
9. To record or perform a song first recorded by another.

Noun

1. Something that covers, such as a lid or a book's binding.
2. Shelter or protection: take cover.
3. Something that hides or disguises: a cover story.
4. A place setting at table.
5. A cover version of a song.

Word family

• coverable
• coverer
• coverless
• coverage
• cut-and-cover
• discover
• recover
• uncover

Related words

• covert
• coverlet
• kerchief
• curfew
• operculum

Usage notes

The SOED records a separate cover, “to get, gain”, from Old English ācofrian, an aphetic form of recover, long obsolete except in dialect,^[7] and in Cumberland and Yorkshire dialect cover meant “to recover damages; to recover from sickness”.^[11] A coverlet is not a little cover but comes from Old French covre-lit, “bed covering”.^[5]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ 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 29 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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)