cotset 
(< sittan, pret. pi. sceton, sit), or setla, a settler, 
dweller, < setl, a seat : see cot 1 , cote 1 , and seta, 
settle, sit.'] See the extract, and that under cot- 
setter. 
That record [Domesday Survey] attests the existence of 
more than 25,000 servi, who must be understood to be, at 
the highest estimate of their condition, landless labour- 
ers ; over 82,000 bordarii ; nearly 7,000 cotarii and cotseti, 
whose names seem to denote the possession of land or 
houses held by service of labour or rent paid in produce ; 
and nearly 110,000 villani. Above these were the liberi 
homines and sokemanni, who seem to represent the medi- 
eval and modern freeholder. Stltbbs, Const. Hist., 132. 
COtsetlert, [An accom. book-form of AS. 
coteetla : see cotset.'] Same as cotset. 
The Kote-Setlan or cotsetlers mentioned in Domesday 
Book are generally described as poor freemen suffered to 
settle on the lord's estate, but they were more probably 
freemen who had settled on their share of the common 
laud, of which the lord had legally the dominion, but un- 
der the feudal system in many cases claimed to have the 
fee. M'. A'. Sullivan, lutrod. to O'Curry's Anc. Irish, p. clvii 
Cotswold (kots'wold), M. [< cot 1 , cote 1 , pi. 
cote, cotes, + wold 1 : see wold 1 ."] Literally, a 
wold where there are sheep-cotes : the name of 
a range of hills in Gloucestershire, England. 
Cotswold sheep, a breed of sheep remarkable for the 
length of their wool, formerly peculiar to the counties of 
Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester, in England. 
COttt, A former spelling of cot 1 . 
COtta (kot'a), M. ; pi. cotta; (-e). [ML. cotta, cota, 
> It. cotta = F. cotte, OF. cote, > E. coatf, q. v.] 
1. A short surplice, either sleeveless or hav- 
ing half -sleeves. 2. A sort of blanket made 
of the coarsest wool. Draper's Diet. 
COttabus (kot'a-bus), n. [L., < Gr. /c6Vra/3of.] 
An ancient Greek game, which consisted in 
throwing portions of wine left in drinking-cups 
into a vessel or upon a specified object, as a 
plate of bronze, so as to produce a clear sound 
and without scattering the fluid. From the suc- 
cessful performance of this feat good fortune, 
especially in love affairs, was augured. 
cottse, n. Plural of cotta. 
cottage (kot'aj), n. [< ME. cotage (ML. cota- 
giwm), <cot (see cot 1 ) + -age. F. cottage is from 
E.] 1. A cot; a humble habitation, as of a 
farm-laborer or a European peasant. 
They were right glad to take some corner of a poor cot- 
tage. Hooker. 
A peasant bred up in the obscurities of a cottage. South. 
The new tax, imposed upon every inhabited dwelling- 
house in England and Wales except cottages, i. e. houses 
not paying to church and poor-rates. 
S. Douvll, Taxes iu England, III. 194. 
2. A small country residence or detached sub- 
urban house, adapted to a moderate scale of 
living. 
He passed a cottage with a double coach-house, 
A cottage of gentility, 
And he owned with a grin 
That his favourite sin 
Is pride that apes humility. 
Southey, The Devil's Walk. 
Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and 
rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. 
Thoreati, Walden, p. 112. 
Hence 3. A temporary residence at a water- 
ing-place or a health- or pleasure-resort, often 
a large and costly structure. [U. S.] 4. In 
old Eng. law, the service to which a cotset or 
cotter was bound. 
They held their land of the Knight by Cottage, as the 
Knight held his of the King by Knight service. 
Booke of Precedence (E. E. T. S., extra ser.), i. 38. 
Cottage allotments, inGreat Britain, portions of ground 
which are allotted to the dwellings of country laborers for 
the purpose of being cultivated by them as gardens. See 
allotment system, under allotment Cottage cheese 
See cheesel. Cottage China, English pottery of a cheap 
sort, especially that produced at Bristol. The name is 
generally given to table utensils decorated with small 
bouquets and the like. Prime. Cottage hospital. See 
hospital. Cottage piano, a small upright piano. Cot- 
tage right, in the early history of Massachusetts, an in- 
ferior right of commonage granted by certain towns to in- 
habitants not included in the original body of proprietors 
cottaged (kot'ajd), a. [< cottage + -ed%.] Set 
or covered with cottages. 
Humble Harting's cottaged vale. Collins, Ode to a Lady. 
cottagelyt (kot'aj-li), a. Rustic; suitable to a 
cottage. 
They envy others whatever they enjoy of estates, houses, 
or ornaments of life, beyond their tenuity or cottagely ob- 
scurity. Artif. Handsomeness, p. 172. 
cottager (kot'a-jer), n. [< cottage + -er 1 ."] 1. 
One who lives in a cottage, in any sense of that 
word. 
Resolve me why the cottager and king, . 
Disquieted alike, draw sigh for sigh. 
Young, Night Thoughts, vii. 
It has ceased to be fashionable to bathe at Newport 
Strangers and servants may do so, but the cottagers have 
withdrawn their support from the ocean. 
C. D. Warner, Their Pilgrimage, p. 104. 
1294 
2. In Eng. lair, one who lives on the common 
without paying any rent or having land of his 
own. 
If a state run most to noblemen and gentlemen, :md 
that the husbandmen and ploughmen be but as their work- 
folks and labourers, or else mere cottagers, which are but 
housed l>eggars, you may have a good cavalry, but never 
good stable bands of foot. 
JSacon, Hist. Hen. VII. (Bonn ed.), p. 360. 
COttab. (kot'a), n. [E. Ind.] A measure of land 
in Bengal, equal to 720 English square feet. 
cottar (kot'ar), n. A Scotch spelling of cotter 1 . 
cottar-town (kot'ar-toun), n. Same as cot- 
town. 
COttellt, n. An obsolete form of cuttle. 
cotter 1 (kot'6r), n. [Also written cottar (Sc.), 
and in technical or historical use also cottier ; 
early mod. E. cottier, cottyer, < ME. cotyer, < 
AF. *cotier, < ML. cotarius, cottarius, coteriits 
(cf . MLG. koter, koterer, MG. koder (= G. kother, 
koter), MLG. also Tcotenere, G. kothner, kotner), 
< cota, a cot: see cot 1 , cote 1 ."] A cottager; in 
Scotland, one who dwells in a cot or cottage 
dependent upon a farm. Sometimes a piece of 
land is attached to the cottage. 
Himself goes patched, like some bare cottyer. 
Bp. Hall, Satires, iv. 2. 
These peasants proper, who may be roughly described 
as small farmers or cottiers, were distinguished from the 
free agricultural laborers in two respects : they were pos- 
sessors of land in property or usufruct, and they were 
members of a rural Commune. 
D. M. Wallace, Russia, p. 460. 
Cottars, who seem to have been distinguished from their 
fellow-villeins simply by their smaller holdings. 
J. K. Green, Couq. of Eng., p. 319. 
Cottier tenure or system, a tenure of land by which 
a laborer rents a portion of land directly from the owner, 
and the conditions of the contract, especially the amount 
of rent to be paid, are determined not by custom, but by 
competition. This system was at one time especially char- 
acteristic of Ireland, and is not yet entirely extinct there. 
The tenancy was annual, and the privilege of occupancy 
was put up at auction, the consequence being excessive 
competition and exorbitant rents, since the cotter was 
obliged to get the land at any price in order to live. In 
an act passed in 1860 to consolidate and amend the law of 
landlord and tenant in Ireland, cottier tenancies are de- 
fined to be cottages with not more than half an acre of 
land, rented by the month at not more than 5 a year. 
cotter 2 (kot'er), M. [Origin obscure.] Inmech., 
a wedge-shaped piece of wood 
or iron used as a wedge for 
fastening or tightening, in the 
adjoining figure, a is a cotter connect- 
ing the end of the rod b with the pin 
or stud c, by means of a wronght-iron 
strap d d, and adjustable bushes ; the 
tapered cotter a, passing through cor- 
responding mortises both in the butt 
b and the strap d d, serves at once 
to attach them together and to ad- 
just the bushes to the proper dis- 
tance from each other. Also called 
cotter-drill (kot'er-dril), . A CMcr ' 
drill used in forming slots. It first bores a 
hole, and then by a lateral motion works out 
the slot. 
cottered (kot'erd), a. [< cotter^ + -ed?.] Keyed 
together by wedges. 
COtterel (kot'er-el), n. [Formerly also cotteril : 
see cotter%.~] 1. In mech., same as cotter 2 . 2. 
A small iron bolt for a window. [Prov. Eng.] 
3. A trammel to support a pot over a fire. 
Brockett. Also cottrel. 4. The horizontal bar 
in an old English chimney. See back-bar. 
COtter-file (kot'er-fil), n. A file used in form- 
ing grooves for the keys, cotters, or wedges used 
in fixing wheels on their shafts. It is narrow and 
almost flat on the sides and edges, thus presenting nearly 
the same section at every part of its length. 
cotter-plate (kot'er-plat), n. In founding, a lip 
or flange of a mold-box. E. H. Knight. 
COttid (kot'id), n. A fish of the family Co<- 
tidte. 
Cottids (kot'i-de), n. pi. [NL., < Coitus + 
->?!.] A family of acanthopterygian fishes, 
typified by the genus Cottus, of varying limits 
in different classifications, (a) In early systems, 
a family of Acanthopterygii, having the head variously 
mailed and protected, and especially a sulwrbital bone 
more or less extended over the cheek and articulated be- 
hind with the preoperculum. Thus understood, it em- 
braced all the mail-cheeked fishes, and answered to the 
"joues cuirass^es" of Cuvier. (6) In Giinther's system, 
a family of Acanthopterygii cotto-ftcombriformes, having 
a bony stay for the angle of the preoperculum, which is 
armed (the boue arising from the infraorbital ring), and 
the body naked, or covered with ordinary scales, or incom- 
pletely cuirassed with a single series of plate-like scales. 
In this sense it embraces not only the true Cottiila>, but 
also the PlatucephaUdm, lloplicMhyina!, Triglidtx and 
Rhamfkocottida <>f other authors. (<) In Gill's system, a 
family of CottottUa with a well-developed myodome, un- 
interrupted cranial valleys behind, and the spinous part 
of the dorsal shorter than the soft part. It includes nu- 
merous species of northern fishes, popularly known as scul- 
pins, bullheads, miller's-thunibs, etc. See cut under iculjrin. 
by two 
cotton 
cottier (kot'i-cr), n. See cotter 1 . 
cottierism (kot'i-i-r-izm), 11. [< cottier + -ism.'] 
The cottier system of land tenure. See cottier 
tf>i arc, under cotter 1 . 
Long leases are in no way to be relied on for getting rid 
of cottierism. J. S. Mill, Pol. Econ., II. x. 1. 
cottiform (kot'i-form), . [< NL. Cottus, q. v., 
+ L. forma, shape.] Having the form of fishes 
of the genus Cottus; of or pertaining to the Cot- 
loillfll ; cottoid. 
Cottina (ko-ti'nii), n. pi. [NL., < Cottus + 
-/.] In Gunth'er's early system, the third 
group of Triglida,'. The spinous part of the dorsal flu 
is less developed than the soft part, or than the anal ; the 
body is naked, or covered with ordinary scales, or incom- 
pletely cnirassed with asingleseriesof plate-like scales; and 
the pyloric appendages are four in number. It was later 
raised by Giinther to the rank of a family. See Cottidce. 
Cottinae (ko-ti'ne), n. pi. [NL.,< Cottus + -in<E.~\ 
A subfamily of Cottidte, to which different limits 
have been assigned, (a) Cottids with ventral fins 
and spiuous dorsal well developed, thus embracing almost 
all the family. (6) Cottids having the preceding characters 
and further limited by the form of the spinous part of the 
dorsal being oblong and not concentrated and elevated. 
It includes the ordinary forms of the family. 
cottine (kot'in), a. and n. I. a. Of or relating 
to the Cottinii'. 
II. re. A fish of the subfamily Cottirue. 
cottist, n. Same as cottine. 
COttise (kot'is), n. [Formation obscure, but 
prob. connected with equiv. cost 3 , F. cote, < 
L. costa, a rib.] In her., a diminutive of the 
bend, being one fourth its width, and half the 
width of the bendlet. A single one is often called a 
cost, but in the plural cotlises is always used. Also spelled 
cotixe, and formerly cotice, cottis. 
COttised (kot'ist), a. In her., ac- 
companied by two or more cot- 
tises, as a bend. Also cotised, co- 
toyf Cottlsed double, having two 
cottises on each side. Cottised treble, 
having three cottises on each side. 
COttle (kot'l), n. [Etym. un- 
known.] A part of a mold used 
by pewterers in the formation of 
their wares. Imp. Diet. 
cottoid (kot'oid), a. and n. [< Cottus + -oitl.~\ 
I. n. Of or relating to the Cottoidea; cottiform. 
II. n. A cottid. 
Cottoidea (ko-toi'de-a), n. pi. [NL., < Cottus 
+ -oidea.~] A superfamily of acanthopterygian 
fishes, to which different limits have been as- 
signed. (n) Corresponding to the mail-cheeked fishes of 
the old authors, (b) Restricted to the mail-cheeked fish- 
es with the post-temporals simply articulated with the 
cranium, one pair of dentigerous epipharyngeals, hyper- 
coracoid and hypocoracoid separated by the intervention 
of actinosts, and ribs fitting into sockets of the vertebra. 
It thus includes the families Cottidce and Hemitripteridce. 
cottoidean (ko-toi'de-an), a. and n. I. a. Per- 
taining to or having 'th'e characters of the Cot- 
toidea. 
II. n. A fish of the superfamily Cottoidea. 
cotton 1 (kot'n), n. and a. [< ME. cotoun, co- 
tune, cotin = MD. kottoen, Icattoen, D. katoen (> 
MHG. kottun, G. kattun = Sw. Dan. katttm = 
mod. Icel. kotiin), < OF. coton, F. colon = Pr. 
coton = It. cotone, formerly cotono, < Sp. coton 
= Pg. cotao, cotton, printed cotton cloth, Sp. 
algodon = Pg. algodSo, cotton (> ult. E. acton, 
q. v.), < Ar. al, the, + qutun, qiitn, cotton. Cf. 
Gael, cotan = W. cotwm, cotton, from E.] I. n. 
1. The white fibrous substance clothing the 
seeds of the cotton-plant (Gossypium). See cut 
under cotton-plant. It consists of simple delicate tu- 
bular hair-like cells, flattened and somewhat twisted. Its 
commercial value depends upon the length and tenacity 
of the fiber. It is the clothing material of a large pro- 
portion of the human race, its use dating back to a very 
early period. In commercial importance cotton exceeds 
all other staples. Great Britain ranks first in the con- 
sumption of the raw material, the United States being 
second, and then France. Cotton consists of nearly pure 
cellulose, and when acted upon by nitric acid yields a 
nitre-compound known as guucotton, which is a power- 
ful explosive, and when dissolved iu ether and alcohol 
forms collodion. Cotton is very extensively used in the 
manufacture of thread, and for many purposes in the arts. 
Iu surgery it is employed for many purposes, and especial- 
ly as a dressing for burns, scalds, etc. See cotton-plant, 
Qossypium. 
Theise men ben the beste worcheres of Gold, Sylver, Co- 
toun, Sylk. and of alle suche thinges, of ony other, that be 
in the World. Mati'lfi-Wr. Travels, p. 212. 
2. Cloth made of cotton. It was originally obtained 
in Europe from India, always famous for Ihe excellence 
and fineness of its cotton fabrics. ;is in the Dacca muslins, 
and has long been in use throughout the East. In 1700 
the importation into England was prohibited, and in 1721 
lines were imposed ui>on the venders and wearers of cot- 
ton, because it was thought to interfere with the home 
manufacture of woolens and linens. Modern inventions 
facilitating its manufacture by machinery have built up 
an immense industry in Europe and the United States. 
See cottii-;riit. tpiimiitg-jenny. 
