Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/211

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Kos

( 189 )

Kot

Kost (1.), f., ‘cost,’ from MidHG. koste kost, f. and m., ‘value, price, expense,’ even in OHG. kosta, f.; borrowed in the OHG. period from MidLat. costus, m., costa, f. (comp. Ital. costo, m., Fr. coût, m., Span. costa, f.; ultimate source Lat. constare, ‘to come to, cost’). From Rom. are derived MidE. costen, E. to cost, whence Scand. kosta, ‘to cost.’

Kost (2.), f. (in the 16th cent. also m.), ‘board,’ from MidHG. koste, kost, f., ‘living, food, victuals’; comp. Scand. kostr, m., ‘victuals, provisions.’ In Scand. as in the G. word, the meanings of (1) and (2) overlap; at all events (2) is a later development of (1). We must certainly assume that the Scand. loan-word kostr, ‘expense, victuals,’ was confused with an OTeut. word which would be most closely connected with Goth. kustus, m., ‘trial, proof,’ and gakusts, ‘test’; OIc. kostr, m., ‘choice, condition, circumstances.’ With regard to these nouns see kiesen.

kosten (1.), vb., ‘to cost,’ from MidHG. kosten, ‘to come to, cost’; from MidLat. and Rom. costare (Lat. constare); Fr. coûter; see Kost (1) and (2); E. to cost.

kosten (2.), vb., ‘to taste,’ from MidHG. ‘to scrutinise, test by tasting’; OHG. and OSax. costôn, AS. costian (wanting in E.); a common Teut. vb. meaning ‘to put to the test, scrutinise, try.’ Kosten, like the Teut. words mentioned under Kost (2), is connected with kiesen, and is identical in form with Lat. gustâre, ‘to taste.’ Teut. kus, pre-Teut. gus, is the root. Comp. kiesen.

kostspielig, adj., ‘expensive,’ first used towards the end of the 18th cent.; it contains, however, an old word which has elsewhere disappeared, and even in this compound has been corrupted; MidHG. spildec, ‘extravagant’; OHG. spilden, ‘to squander, dissipate’ (from OHG. gaspilden, Fr. gaspiller is derived). Hence *kostspildig is probably ‘squandering money’; spildig, which was etymologically obscure, was corrupted into -spielig.

Kot (1.), Kote, f., ‘cot’; prop. a LG. word; LG. kote, kot, Du. kot, ‘hut’; corresponding to AS. cot, n., and cote, f., ‘hut’; from the former E. cot is derived (E. cottage is the same word with a Rom. suffix; comp. MidLat. cotagium, OFr. cotage), from the latter came cote in dove-cote and sheep-cote, comp. Scand. kot, n., ‘small farm.’ Goth. *kut, n., or *kutô, f., is wanting. The

widely ramified class is genuinely Teut., and passed into Slov. (OSlov. kotĭcĭ, ‘cella’) and Kelt. (Gael. cot). Rom. words have also been derived from it — ModFr. cotte, cotillon, Ital. cotta, all of which denote some article of dress, though this sense does not belong to the Teut. word (E. coat, at all events, is probably derived from Rom.). The Teut. word means only ‘apartment, hut, room of a house’; gudo- is perhaps the pre-historic form. — Kotsasse, also by assimilation Kossasse, Kossat, Kotse, ‘person settled in a small farm’; also spelt Kötter.

Kot (2.) m., ‘dirt, mire, dung,’ from the equiv. MidHG. kôt, quât, kât, n., OHG. quât; Goth. *qêda-, ‘dirt,’ is wanting. Prop. neut. adj.; MidG. quât, ModDu. kwaad, ‘wicked, ugly, rotten’ (MidE. cwêd, ‘bad’). Unflat and Unrat are in the same way veiled terms for stercus. In its pre-Teut. form guêtho, Kot might be related by gradation to Ind. gûtha, Zend gûtha, ‘dirt, excrementa,’ so that the Teut. subst. may have been formed from the adj. even in prehistoric times; the Sans. and Zend word seems, however, to be connected with the Ind. root gu, ‘caccare’ (OSlov. govĭno, n., ‘dirt’).

Kote, Köte, f., ‘pastern joint,’ ModHG. only, from LG. kote; comp. ModDu. koot, Fris. kate, f., ‘knuckle-bone.’ No other cognates are found.

Köter, m., ‘cur,’ prop. ‘farmer's dog,’ allied. to LG. kote, ‘small farm.’ See Kot (1).

Kotze, f., ‘coarse cloth,’ from MidHG. kotze, m., ‘coarse, shaggy woollen stuff, cover or garment made of it,’ OHG. chozzo, m., chozza, f.; comp. OSax. cot (tt) ‘woollen cloak, coat’; a specifically G. word, wanting in Goth., Scand., and E. The Rom. words mentioned under Kot (1) — Fr. cotte, ‘petticoat,’ Ital. cotta — seem to have been borrowed from G., since in OHG. other words belong to the same class, OHG. umbîchuzzi, ‘upper garment,’ umbichuzzen, vb., ‘amicire.’ On the assumption that Kotze is a genuine Teut. word, some have connected it with Gr. βεῦδος (from the root gud), ‘woman's dress.’ MidE. cote, E. coat are certainly of Rom. origin, OFr. cote, MidLat. cotta. Comp. Kutte.

Kötze, f., ‘basket,’ from the equiv. MidHG. kœtze, of obscure origin; comp. Kieze.