cotte

Forms

cotte f (plural cottes)^[1] Old French cote; the form copte is found in 1526.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French cote, borrowed from Frankish *kotta.^[2][3][4] The Frankish word is inferred from Old High German kozzo (masculine) and kozza (feminine) “woollen mantle”, which match the forms Medieval Latin cottus and cotta found in Germanic-speaking areas in 888 and 1015.^[2][3] Wiktionary sets it beside Proto-Germanic *kuttô.^[1] Bloch and Wartburg also derive it from Frankish, citing chozza “mantle of coarse wool”.^[5] The Grand Robert gives the Frankish origin only as probable and reports Pierre Guiraud's alternative: a link with Old French cote² (“skin of an animal or fruit”), of Provençal or Italian origin, from a Romance *cutita, from Latin cutis (“skin”).^[6][3] Littré rejected Diez's derivation from the Latin word for skin because of the gender and the sense.^[7]

Spanish cota, Old Occitan cota and Italian cotta were borrowed from French.^[5][8] The English word coat comes from the Old French word.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wace's Brut (1155) uses it for an outer garment with sleeves worn by both men and women.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the word named a tunic worn by both sexes and especially a knight's garment, which gave cote a armer (1212) and cotte d'armes (about 1240), a coat worn over the cuirass, and cotte de mailles (1526), mail armour.^[2][3] Rey notes that mail armour itself is much older than the phrase: it appears on the Bayeux tapestry and became general after 1150.^[3]

From 1539 the word also meant a short skirt pleated at the waist, a sense still alive in the dialects of the east of France.^[2][3][5] In 1877 Zola wrote of a cotte d'ouvrier, the worker's overalls; the TLFi thinks this sense may come from the dialects, as it was noted at Rennes.^[2]

Timeline

• 1155 – Wace's Brut uses cote for a sleeved outer garment.^[2]
• 1212 – Cote a armer appears in Jean Renart's Guillaume de Dole.^[2][3]
• c. 1240 – First record of cotte d'armes.^[3]
• c. 1250 – The compound cotte-hardie appears.^[3]
• 1461 – The derivative cotillon is recorded.^[5][3]
• 1526 – Copte de maille (mail armour) is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1539 – Bonaventure des Périers uses it for a skirt.^[2]
• 1877 – Zola writes of a cotte d'ouvrier, a worker's overalls.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A tunic worn by men and women in the Middle Ages.^[4][6]
2. Cotte de mailles: a coat of mail, armour of interlinked metal rings.^[4][6]
3. Cotte d'armes: a coat worn over the cuirass.^[4][6]
4. (archaic) A short skirt pleated at the waist, a petticoat.^[4][1]
5. (dated) Work overalls, trousers with a bib reaching up the chest.^[4][1]

Word family

• cotillon
• cotteron
• cotte-hardie

Related words

• surcot
• English coat

Usage notes

The Grand Robert has a separate masculine noun cotte (1838), a small fish also called chabot, the bullhead, from the Greek kottos with the same meaning.^[6] Littré lists it as well.^[7] Cotte is pronounced like cote.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com