Post by t-bob on Feb 26, 2019 10:13:03 GMT -5
COZEN
verb
1. to cheat, deceive, or trick.
Quotes
He had come to cozen me into letting him use me in return for a mockery of an honor. -- David Graham Phillips, The Plum Tree, 1905 Let us cozen it with a golden shrewdness. -- Iris Murdoch, An Accidental Man, 1971
Origin
The verb cozen has a doubtful ancestry. One plausible etymology has cozen associated with the noun cousin (i.e., the relative), modeled on the French usage of the verb cousiner “to call ‘cousin,’” i.e., to claim fraudulent kindred to gain some profit or advantage. A second etymology derives cozen from Italian cozzonare “to engage in horse trading, cheat,” from cozzone, from Latin coctiōn-, the inflectional stem of coctiō “a dealer, broker.” Cozen entered English in the 16th century.
verb
1. to cheat, deceive, or trick.
Quotes
He had come to cozen me into letting him use me in return for a mockery of an honor. -- David Graham Phillips, The Plum Tree, 1905 Let us cozen it with a golden shrewdness. -- Iris Murdoch, An Accidental Man, 1971
Origin
The verb cozen has a doubtful ancestry. One plausible etymology has cozen associated with the noun cousin (i.e., the relative), modeled on the French usage of the verb cousiner “to call ‘cousin,’” i.e., to claim fraudulent kindred to gain some profit or advantage. A second etymology derives cozen from Italian cozzonare “to engage in horse trading, cheat,” from cozzone, from Latin coctiōn-, the inflectional stem of coctiō “a dealer, broker.” Cozen entered English in the 16th century.
