Etymologically
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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
  • 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)