"C" Word Origins

coax

Origin · 1500

Originally from a 16th-century slang phrase meaning "to make a fool of", from an old noun "coax" meaning a simpleton — the meaning shifted over time to "gently persuade".

cob

Origin

A very old word of uncertain origin, applied over the centuries to lots of round or lumpy things — corn cobs, stocky horses, round loaves, even a male swan.

Cobain

Old Norse

From the Old Norse given name Kolbeinn.

cobalt

German

From German Kobalt, itself linked to Kobold ("goblin") — miners blamed mischievous spirits for cobalt ore, which looked like silver but poisoned them with arsenic fumes when smelted.

Cobb

Origin

Variant spelling of cob.

cobber

Origin

Uncertain. Perhaps from Yiddish חבֿר (khaver, “friend, comrade”), from Hebrew חבר (ḥāḇēr, “friend”), possibly via Dutch gabber; alternately, perhaps from the British dialectal term cob (“take a liking to”), or a conflation of both. The suggestion that it is a self-referential collective term for convicts and immigrants who departed for Australian shores from the Irish port of Cobh seems chronologically unlikely.

cobble

Middle English

From Middle English forms tied to "cobblestone," probably a small version of an old word for a rounded lump.

cobbler

Middle English

From Middle English cobeler, a word for a shoe-mender whose exact origin is lost; the verb "cobble" (to patch roughly) may actually have come later, from this word rather than the other way round.

cobblerfish

Origin

From cobbler + fish.

cobblestone

Origin

From Middle English cobylstone, cobyllstone, kobilstane, kobill-stane, equivalent to cobble + stone. Compare Old Norse köppusteinn (“boulder”), Danish kampesten (“boulder”).

cobnut

Origin

From earlier cobylle nut; see cobble, nut.

cobra

Latin

From Portuguese cobra, ultimately from Latin colubra, "female snake."

Coburn

Origin

Variant of Cockburn.

cobweb

Middle English

From Middle English copweb — likely "cop" (an old word for spider) plus "web."

cobwebbed

Origin

From cobweb + -ed.

cobwebs

English

From Middle English coppeweb, from Old English coppe 'spider' plus web; the first element survives only in this compound.

coca

Spanish

Borrowed via Spanish from Quechua kuka.

cocaine

Origin · 1874

Formed from "coca" plus the chemical suffix "-ine"; first used in this sense around 1874.

coccyx

Greek

From Greek kokkyx, "cuckoo" — an ancient anatomist thought the bone's curve resembled a cuckoo's beak.

Cochin

Origin

Named after Kochi (formerly Cochin), a city in Kerala, India.

cochineal

Origin

The noun is borrowed from Middle French cochenille (modern French cochenille), from Italian cocciniglia or Spanish cochinilla; further etymology uncertain, possibly from Latin coccineus, coccinus (“scarlet-dyed; scarlet in colour”) (whence Italian coccineo (“scarlet in colour”)) + Italian -iglia (suffix forming collective nouns), Spanish -illa (“diminutive suffix”). Coccinus is derived from Ancient Greek κόκκῐνος (kókkĭnos, “scarlet; (figurative) blushing”, adjective), from κόκκος (kókkos, “kermes oak (Quercus coccifera); insect of the genus Kermes living on the oak; scarlet dye made from crushed kermes insects”) (possibly from Pre-Greek) + -ῐνος (-ĭnos, suffix forming adjectives). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, cochineal is not derived from Spanish cochinilla (“pill bug, especially the common pill bug (Armadillidium vulgare)”), a diminutive of cochina (“female pig, sow”) (from the animal’s shape), which coincidentally has the same spelling as cochinilla (“cochineal”). The adjective is derived from the noun.

Cochran

Origin

Variant of Cochrane.

Cochrane

Origin

From the place name "Lowlands of Cochrane" in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland.

cock

Old English · 1600

From Old English cocc, most likely imitating the bird's crowing sound; the vulgar sense for "penis" has been in use since at least the 1600s.

cockamamie

French

Believed to be an American mangling of French décalcomanie, the process of transferring printed designs (decals) onto surfaces — the word drifted from "cheap novelty transfer" to "silly and unconvincing."

cockatoo

Dutch

From Dutch kaketoe, borrowed from Malay kakaktua; the English spelling was later shaped by the unrelated word "cock."

cockatrice

Origin

From Middle English cocatrice, from Old French cocatriz (“basilisk, cockatrice”), from Late Latin calcātrīx (“female trampler, treader”), from Latin calcāre (“to trample, to walk upon, to oppress”) + -trīx (“-ess: forming feminine agentives”), from calx (“heel”). Its eventual association with poultry influenced by cock (“rooster, male chicken”), q.v.

cockbird

Origin

From cock + bird.

cockblock

Origin

Rhyming compound of cock + block; likely a back-formation from cockblocker. First use appears c. 1972. See cite below.

cockbreath

Origin

From cock + breath.

cockchafer

Origin

From cock (“male bird”) + chafer (“beetle”). The Oxford English Dictionary speculates that the name may relate to a resemblance of antennae to coxcomb, or to the beetle’s size. Compare French hanneton (“cockchafer”), ultimately from Frankish *hanō (“rooster”). First attested in the late 17th century.

cockcrow

Origin

From Middle English cok crowe (also as cokkes crowe), equivalent to cock + crow. Likely a suppletive variation of Old English hancrǣd (“cockcrow, dawn”, literally “cock-crowing”), from hana (“cock, rooster”) + crǣd (“crowing”).

cocker

Origin

From "cock" (as in woodcock, the bird these dogs were bred to hunt) plus the agent suffix "-er."

cockerel

Middle English

From Middle English kokerel, built from "cock" plus a diminutive ending.

cocket

Origin

From Middle English coket, possibly from Latin quo quietus.

cockeye

Origin

From cock + eye. See cock (“to turn up”).

cockeyed

Origin

From "cock" (to tilt) plus "eyed" — originally describing eyes turned inward or askew.

cockfag

Origin

From cock + -fag.

cocking

Origin

From cock (a male bird, especially a rooster) plus the suffix -ing.

cockle

Origin

From Middle English cokel, cokkel, kokkel, cocle, of uncertain origin. Perhaps a diminutive of Middle English cokke, cok (“cockle”), from Old English cocc (found in sǣcocc (“cockle”)) + -le; or perhaps from Old French coquille, from Vulgar Latin *cocchilia, from conchylia, from Ancient Greek κογχύλιον (konkhúlion), diminutive of κογχύλη (konkhúlē, “mussel”), of Pre-Greek substrate origin.

cockmunch

Origin

cock + munch

Cockney

Middle English · 1600

First recorded around 1600, from Middle English cokenay, originally meaning a spoilt or pampered child, later used by country folk as a mocking term for city dwellers.

cockpit

Origin

Originally a pit built for staging cockfights; the sense later extended to any small enclosed control area, including a ship's or aircraft's command space.

cockroach

Spanish

From Spanish cucaracha, reshaped in English under the influence of the unrelated words "cock" and "roach."

cockrum

Origin

Probably a reduced form of Cockerham or a variant of Cochrane.

Cocks

Origin

The surname is a variant of Cox.

cockscomb

Origin

From Middle English cokkes comb; equivalent to cock + -s- + comb.

cockshut

Origin

From Middle English cockshoot or a compound of cock (noun) + shut (verb).