cot

Forms

cot n (plural coate)^[1] The plural depends on the sense: coate for the elbow, coturi for bends, pipes and gauges, and the masculine coți for the measure.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cubitus (“elbow”): DELR derives the body part from it and the unit of length from cubitum (“cubit”).^[4] Ciorănescu, Pușcariu and the REW start from the neuter, which already had both senses.^[3][5] MDA2 gives the masculine.^[6] DELR explains the vowel through the stages ⟨*cuet⟩ > ⟨*cuăt⟩ > ⟨*cuot⟩ > ⟨cout⟩, as in nor from nubilum,^[4] and Wiktionary posits a contracted Vulgar Latin *cubtu.^[1] De Vaan takes the Latin noun as the past participle of cubō (“to lie down”), since people lie on their elbow when they rest on their side.^[7]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian cot, Megleno-Romanian cot and Istro-Romanian cot.^[3][8][9] Albanian kut comes from the same Latin word.^[3][10] The Romance cognates include Italian gomito, Occitan code, French coude, Spanish codo and Portuguese coto.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a place name, ⟨Covth⟩, which DELR dates to 1232 after Drăganu;^[4][11] Tiktin gives 1332 for a record from the same work.^[4][11] In Romanian texts the plural coate already appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, and MDA2's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[12][6]

Semantic evolution

From the elbow came the elbow of a sleeve and the hock of a horse.^[2][4] The bend of the arm gave the bend of a road, a valley or a river, and later a bent length of pipe.^[4][2] The forearm gave a unit of length: Tiktin records a Wallachian cot of 66.6 cm, a Moldavian one of 63.7 cm and the cot de Halep of 68.8 cm, divided into 8 rupi of 16 grefi each, until the metre replaced them.^[11] The rod used to measure cloth or the content of barrels was a cot too.^[11][4]

The verb coti “to turn; to measure with the cot” is recorded from about 1650, and taxes on goods sold by the cot were called cotărie and cotărit.^[4] In slang cot means a year of prison.^[13] Ciorănescu explains the slang “nothing” from the vulgar habit of showing one's elbow as a refusal, after Graur.^[3]

Timeline

• 1232 – the place name ⟨Covth⟩.^[4]
• 1332 – Tiktin's date for a record from Drăganu.^[11]
• c. 1500-1520 – the plural coate in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[12]
• c. 1573-1578 – MDA2's first record, the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[6]
• 1649 – cot in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, for the Slavonic word for “elbow”.^[14]
• c. 1650 – the verb coti.^[4]
• c. 1665 – cotărie, a tax on goods sold by the cot.^[4]
• 1682 – coteală “measuring with the cot” in Dosoftei.^[4]
• 1688 – coți as the measure, 210 times in the Bucharest Bible, as in Genesis 6:15.^[15]
• 1705 – cotitură “bend” in Cantemir.^[4]
• 1806 – cotar, the official who checked measures.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The elbow: the outer part of the joint between the upper arm and the forearm;^[2][6][1] cot la cot “side by side”.^[2][6][1]
2. The part of a sleeve that covers the elbow.^[2]
3. On a horse, the hock of the hind leg.^[2][3]
4. A bend where a road or valley changes direction; a meander of a river.^[2][1]
5. A curved length of pipe joining two straight pieces.^[2]
6. (dated) A rod for gauging the content of barrels.^[11][4]
7. (historical) An old unit of length, the ell, of about 64 to 67 cm.^[11][3][1]
8. (slang) A year of prison.^[13]

Word family

• coti
• cotitură
• cotar
• cotărie
• coteală
• cotigi
• cotiș
• cotuleț
• încota

Related words

• Aromanian cot
• Albanian kut
• Latin cubitus

Usage notes

Common expressions include a da din coate “to elbow one's way”, a-i arăta cuiva cotul “to snub someone” and mă doare-n cot “I couldn't care less”;^[2] coate-goale is a poor wretch.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 242
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. cot
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. cot
5. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 35
6. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 525
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 307
9. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 249
10. ^ Demiraj, Bardhyl (ed.), Digitales philologisch-etymologisches Wörterbuch des Albanischen, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
11. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cot
12. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 108:30
13. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. cot
14. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. cot
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Genesis 6:15