cossus

French

Adjective

cossus

1. masculine plural of cossu

Latin

Etymology

Uncertain; proposed derivations include:

• From a root common to Ancient Greek σκίδνημι (skídnēmi, “to disperse”) and Lithuanian kedeti (“to burst”).
• From Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”). Cognates include cortex (“bark”) and Ancient Greek κείρω (keírō, “to cut off”).
• From Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“to cut”), with the possible cognate careō (“I lack”).

Noun

cossus m (genitive cossī); second declension

1. woodworm (worm or grub found in wood)

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Descendants

• Albanian: koshëz
• Asturian: cosu (in part), coxíu, guxán (uncertain)
• Friulian: cos
• Galician: coxo, coxillo
• Italian: cosso
• Romanian: coș
• Spanish: coso, cojijo, gusano (uncertain)
• Translingual: Cossus

References

• “cossus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cossus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• cossus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “cossus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “cossus”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray