Obs. or dial. Forms: 5 cogill, cogyl, coggul, 7 cogle, 7– coggle. [known only from 14th c.; possibly from a root *kug- with the sense ‘rounded lump,’ cf. Ger. kugel, Du. kōgel; but this is doubtful. The parallelism in form and sense to COBBLE suggests onomatopœic formation: cf. the dial. knobbly and knoggly ‘having rounded protuberances’; perh. there is also relation to cockle in sense ‘unsteady from having a rounded base’; cf. coggly, -dy = cockly, -ty.]
A rounded water-worn stone, esp. of the size suitable for paving; a cobble. More fully coggle-stone.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 3895. A company of Crabbe-fische … With backis … bigger & hardere Þan ony comon cogill-stane or cocatryse scales.
1464. Rec. Nottingham, II. 373. Item paied for xxiiii lode of cogyls stones. Ibid. (1483), II. 392. Item paid for cogguls and to a pauar xijd.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. ix. 20. Coggles, Flint, Pibbles, Shingles, and other stones.
1610. Markham, Masterp., II. cv. 388. Any bruise either vpon cogle stone, flint, or such like.
1638. Sanderson, Serm. (1681), II. 112. A Flint … strucken with all the Might against a hard Coggle.
1769. L. Edward, in Hist. Linc. (1834), I. 20. Blue clay, full of large coggles or stones.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., Coggles, large gravel stones used for paving.
1886. S. W. Linc. Gloss., Coggle, a small round stone, pebble, cobble.
