"C" Word Origins

coot

Middle English

From Middle English cote, of uncertain origin — possibly borrowed from Middle Dutch coet, the same word that gives Dutch koet.

cooter

Origin

Borrowed from Gullah cootuh ("turtle"), which traces back to a West African language, likely Bambara kuta.

cootie

Origin

Probably from Malay kutu (“flea, louse”) (and/or Tagalog/Māori). First attested in English in 1917 as British army slang during World War I.

cooze

Origin

Uncertain, but compare Danish kusse (“vagina”), Persian کس (kos, “vagina”), vernacular Arabic كُس (kus, “vagina”), and Northern Kurdish qûz (“vagina”). The term may have been introduced to the United States after the Second World War by servicemen who fought in north Africa, but it already existed as a slang term in the blues community as early as 1929.

cop

Old English

Origin uncertain — possibly from an Old English word meaning "to seize" or from a Dutch verb meaning "to capture," picked up through contact between English and Dutch speakers.

Copacabana

Portuguese

Borrowed from Portuguese Copacabana and Spanish Copacabana, the latter borrowed in turn from Aymara Kotakawana (“God of Fertility”).

copacetic

Origin · 1919

Origin disputed — one theory credits novelist Irving Bacheller with coining it in 1919; another links it to African American vernacular of the early 20th century, popularized in part by dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. No single explanation is proven.

cope

Old French

Ultimately from Old French coper/couper ("to strike, cut"), related to the idea of "trading blows" — the sense shifted over time from fighting to dealing with a problem generally.

coped

Origin

From cope + -ed. Piecewise doublet of caped, capped, and chaped.

Copenhagen

Origin

From Low German Kopenhagen, a calque (perhaps modified by folk etymology) of Danish København. See also chapman, haven.

copier

Origin

Formed from copy plus the agent suffix -er, giving "one that copies."

copilot

Origin

From co- ("together with") plus pilot.

coping

Origin

From the verb cope ("to cover, to manage") plus -ing.

copious

Latin

From Latin copiosus ("plentiful"), from copia ("abundance").

copiousness

Origin

From Middle English copyousnesse, equivalent to copious + -ness.

copland

Origin

Perhaps from obsolete cop (“summit, hilltop”) + land.

copper

Late Latin

From Old English coper, from Late Latin cuprum, itself shortened from Latin aes Cyprium ("metal of Cyprus"), an island long famous for copper mining.

Copperfield

Origin

From copper + field.

copperhead

Origin

From copper + head.

coppertop

Origin

From copper + top.

coppice

Origin

From Middle English copies, from Old French copeiz (“a cut-over forest”), from presumed Vulgar Latin *colpaticium (“having the quality of being cut”), from *colpāre (“to cut, strike”), from *colpus (“a blow”), from Latin colaphus (“a cuff, box on the ear”), from Ancient Greek κόλαφος (kólaphos, “a blow, slap”).

Coppola

Italian

Borrowed from Italian Coppola, adapted from Sicilian Còppula, from còppula (“coppola cap, foreskin”).

cops

Origin

Plural form of cop, an informal word for a police officer.

copse

Origin

1578, from coppice, by contraction, originally meaning “small wood grown for purposes of periodic cutting”.

copter

Origin

A clipped, informal form of helicopter.

copulate

Latin

From Latin copulatus, past participle of copulare ("to join, couple, connect").

copulation

Latin

From Latin copulatio, from copulare ("to join, unite").

copulator

Origin

From copulate + -or.

copy

Latin

From Old French copie ("transcript, abundance"), from Latin copia ("abundance"), since making many copies produces an abundance of a text.

copycat

Origin

American in origin, from copy plus cat, an old derogatory term for a person.

copyfight

Origin

Blend of copyright + fight.

copying

Origin

From copy plus -ing.

copyleft

Origin

A pun on copyright, which refers to using copyright laws for purposes that are in some ways contrary to copyright's original intent.

copyright

Origin

From copy plus right, referring to the legal right over how a copy of a work is made and used.

copywrong

Origin

Blend of copyright + wrong.

coq

French

Borrowed from French coq, meaning "rooster" — the same word that gives English "coq au vin."

coquet

Origin

Borrowed from French coquet (“little cockerel”), from coq (“cockerel”) + -et (“masculine diminutive suffix”).

coquetry

Origin

From French coquetterie.

coquette

Origin

Borrowed from French coquette.

cor

Origin

A minced oath, a softened stand-in for "God."

Cora

Origin

Apparently brought up in English literature by James Fenimore Cooper in The Last of the Mohicans (1826), but compare a female heroine of this name in Jean-François Marmontel's Les Incas (1777) and the Ancient Greek epithet Κόρη (Kórē) for Περσεφόνη (Persephónē). It could also refer directly to κόρη (kórē, “maiden”).

coral

Ancient Greek

From Old French coral, from Latin corallium, from Ancient Greek korallion.

Coraline

Origin

An elaborate form of Coralie, itself derived from coral. Name of a character in Adolphe Adam's opera Le toréador.

coralline

Origin

From French corallin, from Latin corallinus, from corallium (“coral”), via Greek probably of Semitic origin. The taxonomic sense is a semantic loan from translingual Corallina and related terms. By surface analysis, coral + -ine.

corbel

Origin

From Middle English corbel, from Old French corbel, from Late Latin corbellus, corvellus, diminutive of Latin corvus (“raven”), named for the shape's resemblance to a crow's beak. Doublet of corbeau.

Corbett

Origin

From Anglo-Norman corbet (“little crow; carrion crow”), probably a nickname for someone with dark hair or complexion.

Corbin

Latin

An Anglo-Norman nickname from corb (“crow”), or shortened from the Corbinian, the name of a Frankish eighth-century saint, probably from Latin corvus (“crow, raven”).

Corbyn

Latin

An Anglo-Norman nickname from corb (“crow”), or shortened from the Corbinian, the name of a Frankish eighth-century saint, probably from Latin corvus (“crow, raven”).