cog

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See also: COG

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Cogwheel showing the teeth (cogs).

From Middle English cogge, from Old Norse (compare Norwegian kugg (“cog”), Swedish kugg, kugge (“cog, tooth”)), from Proto-Germanic *kuggō (compare Dutch kogge (“cogboat”), German Kock), from Proto-Indo-European *gugā (“hump, ball”) (compare Lithuanian gugà (“pommel, hump, hill”)), from *gēw- (“to bend, arch”).

The meaning of “cog” in carpentry derives from association with a tooth on a cogwheel.

Noun

cog (plural cogs)

  1. A tooth on a gear.
  2. A gear; a cogwheel.
  3. An unimportant individual in a greater system.
    • 1976, Norman Denny (English translation), Victor Hugo (original French), Les Misérables
      ‘There are twenty-five of us, but they don’t reckon I’m worth anything. I’m just a cog in the machine.’
    • 1988, David Mamet, Speed-the-Plow
      Your boss tells you “take initiative,” you best guess right—and you do, then you get no credit. Day-in, … smiling, smiling, just a cog.
  4. (carpentry) A projection or tenon at the end of a beam designed to fit into a matching opening of another piece of wood to form a joint.
  5. (mining) One of the rough pillars of stone or coal left to support the roof of a mine.
Derived terms
Translations
cogwheel — see gear wheel

Verb

cog (third-person singular simple present cogs, present participle cogging, simple past and past participle cogged)

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
  1. To furnish with a cog or cogs.
  2. (intransitive) Of an electric motor or generator, to snap preferentially to certain positions when not energized.

Etymology 2

A modern replica of a cog (ship).

From Middle English cogge, from Middle Dutch kogge, cogghe (modern kogge), from Proto-Germanic *kuggō (compare German Kock (“cogboat”), Norwegian kugg (“cog (gear tooth)”)), from Proto-Indo-European *gugā (“hump, ball”) (compare Lithuanian gugà (“pommel, hump, hill”)), from *gēw- (“to bend, arch”). See etymology 1 above.

Noun

cog (plural cogs)

  2. (historical) A clinker-built, flat-bottomed, square-rigged mediaeval ship of burden, or war with a round, bulky hull and a single mast, typically 15 to 25 meters in length.
    • 1952, C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:
      The name of the ship was Dawn Treader. She was only a little bit of a thing compared with one of our ships, or even with the cogs, dromonds, carracks and galleons which Narnia had owned when Lucy and Edmund had reigned there under Peter as the High King, for nearly all navigation had died out in the reigns of Caspian's ancestors.
  3. (by extension) A small fishing boat.
Translations

Etymology 3

Uncertain. Both verb and noun appear first in 1532.

Noun

cog (plural cogs)

  1. A trick or deception; a falsehood.
    • 1602, William Watson, Quodlibets Religious and State:
      False suggestions, shamelesse cogs, and impious forgeries.
Translations

Verb

cog (third-person singular simple present cogs, present participle cogging, simple past and past participle cogged)

  1. To load (a die) so that it can be used to cheat.
  2. To cheat; to play or gamble fraudulently.
    • 1726, Jonathan Swift (debated), Molly Mog
      For guineas in other men's breeches, / Your gamesters will palm and will cog.
  3. To seduce, or draw away, by adulation, artifice, or falsehood; to wheedle; to cozen; to cheat.
  4. To plagiarize.
    • 1979, Tri-Quarterly, numbers 46-47, page 273:
      […] his themes and exercises were in constant demand for what we called cogging and American students rather grandly called plagiarization. Shakespeare and Eliot plagiarized; we grimly cogged in the early morning-oh, […]
    • 2006, Verve: The Spirit of Today's Woman, volume 14, numbers 4-6, page 51:
      Coming to journalism, how many of us have not been guilty at some stage of 'cogging' from other articles, […]
    • 1879, Dennis O'Sullivan, The Stirring Adventures of Corp'l Morgan Rattler‎, F. Tousey, →OCLC, page 8:
      I wasn't able to translate two verses in Virgil or Homer , without “ cogging " from some fellow - student ; but I was eternally repeating passages from the poems of Byron , Moore , and Scott ; while I gloried in the soul - stirring ...
  5. To obtrude or thrust in, by falsehood or deception; to palm off.
    to cog in a word
    • October 3, 1718, John Dennis, letter to S. T. , Esq; On the Deceitfulness of Rumour
      Fustian tragedies have been cogg'd upon the town for Master-pieces.
Translations

Etymology 4

Noun

cog (plural cogs)

  1. Alternative form of cogue (“wooden vessel for milk”)

Anagrams

Irish

Etymology

Back-formation from cogadh (“war”).

Verb

cog (present analytic cogann, future analytic cogfaidh, verbal noun cogadh, past participle cogtha)

  1. (rare or archaic) to war, wage war

Conjugation

conjugation of cog (first conjugation – A)
singular plural relative autonomous
first second third first second third
indicative present cogaim cogann tú;
cogair† 		cogann sé, sí cogaimid cogann sibh cogann siad;
cogaid† 		a chogann; a chogas /
a gcogann*; a gcogas* 		cogtar
past chog mé; chogas chog tú; chogais chog sé, sí chogamar; chog muid chog sibh; chogabhair chog siad; chogadar a chog /
ar chog* 		cogadh
past habitual chogainn / gcogainn‡‡ chogtá / gcogtᇇ chogadh sé, sí / gcogadh sé, s퇇 chogaimis; chogadh muid / gcogaimis‡‡; gcogadh muid‡‡ chogadh sibh / gcogadh sibh‡‡ chogaidís; chogadh siad / gcogaidís‡‡; gcogadh siad‡‡ a chogadh /
a gcogadh* 		chogtaí / gcogta퇇
future cogfaidh mé;
cogfad 		cogfaidh tú;
cogfair† 		cogfaidh sé, sí cogfaimid;
cogfaidh muid 		cogfaidh sibh cogfaidh siad;
cogfaid† 		a chogfaidh; a chogfas /
a gcogfaidh*; a gcogfas* 		cogfar
conditional chogfainn / gcogfainn‡‡ chogfá / gcogfᇇ chogfadh sé, sí / gcogfadh sé, s퇇 chogfaimis; chogfadh muid / gcogfaimis‡‡; gcogfadh muid‡‡ chogfadh sibh / gcogfadh sibh‡‡ chogfaidís; chogfadh siad / gcogfaidís‡‡; gcogfadh siad‡‡ a chogfadh /
a gcogfadh* 		chogfaí / gcogfa퇇
subjunctive present go gcoga mé;
go gcogad† 		go gcoga tú;
go gcogair† 		go gcoga sé, sí go gcogaimid;
go gcoga muid 		go gcoga sibh go gcoga siad;
go gcogaid† 		— go gcogtar
past dá gcogainn dá gcogtá dá gcogadh sé, sí dá gcogaimis;
dá gcogadh muid 		dá gcogadh sibh dá gcogaidís;
dá gcogadh siad 		— dá gcogtaí
imperative cogaim cog cogadh sé, sí cogaimis cogaigí;
cogaidh† 		cogaidís — cogtar
verbal noun cogadh
past participle cogtha

* indirect relative
† archaic or dialect form
‡‡ dependent form used with particles that trigger eclipsis

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
cog chog gcog
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

Middle English

Etymology

From Old French cogue, itself from Middle Dutch kogge.

Noun

cog

  1. a ship of burden, or war with a round, bulky hull

Further reading

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

Back-formation from cogadh (“war, fighting”).

Verb

cog (past chog, future cogaidh, verbal noun cogadh, past participle cogte)

  1. fight

Welsh

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle Welsh coc, from Proto-Brythonic *kog, ultimately imitative, similar to Old High German kā (“crow, jackdaw”), Middle Low German kâ (“crow, jackdaw”).

Noun

cog f (plural cogau)

  1. cuckoo
Usage notes
  • Cog is usually found preceded by the definite article, y gog.
Synonyms

Etymology 2

From Middle Welsh coc, from Proto-Brythonic *kog, from Latin coquus.

Noun

cog m (plural cogau or cygod)

  1. cook
    Synonym: cogydd
Derived terms

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
cog gog nghog chog
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

  • R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “cog”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
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