Forms: 4–6 cotage, 5– cottage. [app. a. AF. *cotage, in latinized form cotagium, f. cota COTE1, COT1. The force of the suffix was prob. to denote a cot and its appurtenances, a cottage tenement; but no distinct evidence of this is quoted. Mod.F. cottage is from Eng. OF. had cotage as a term of feudal law in the sense of base tenure (tenure roturière, Godef.), and the rent paid for a tenement so held. Cf. the following:
Ashmole MS. 837 (17th c.) art. viii. fol. 162. An Esquire … is he that in times past was Costrell to a knight … whereof euery knight had twoe at the least [in] attendance upon him, in respect of the fee, For they held their land of the knight by Cottage, as the knight held his of the king by knight service.]
1. A dwelling-house of small size and humble character, such as is occupied by farm-laborers, villagers, miners, etc.
Historically the term is found first applied to the dwelling-places or holdings that under the feudal system were occupied by the cottars, cottiers, cotsets, or coterells, and by the laborers of a farmstead; dwellings for the laboring classes in rural and urban districts were, under this name, the subject of various legal enactments, such as 31 Eliz. c. 7, 15 Geo. III., c. 32, etc., and, when under a certain rental, were exempted from paying church-rate, poor-rate, etc.; with the disappearance of legal regulations and exemptions, and under the influence of 4, the term has become more vague in its application.
[a. 1272. Charter, in Kennett, Par. Antiq., I. 432. Et non habentur ibidem nisi tria cotagia.
13[?]. Extenta Manerii, Statutes I. 242. Item inquirendum est de Coterellis que cotagia & Curtulagia teneant, per quod servicium & quantum reddant per annum pro predictis Cotagiis & Curtulagiis.]
c. 1386. Chaucer, Nun’s Pr. T., 2. A poure wydwe … Was whilom dwellyng in a narwe cotage.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 576. Cotagium, a cotage, or a cot.
1503–4. Act 19 Hen. VII., c. 37 § 5. Too Cotages or Meses wyth Howses & Wharfes … in Stepeney.
1514. Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.), 2. Nothynge he hadde to conforte him in age Save a melche cow, & a poore cotage.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 440. Thys yere, of an evill favoured olde house or cotage was the Guyldhall in London buylded and finished.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. ii. 14. If to doe were as easie as to know what were good to doe, Chappels had beene Churches, and poore mens cottages Princes Pallaces.
1614. Bp. Hall, Recoll. Treat., 166. Kings use not to dwell in Cottages of clay.
1641. Termes de la Ley, 91. By a Statute made in the 31. yeare of Queene Eliz. cap. 7. no man may at this day build such a Cottage for habitation, unlesse hee lay unto it foure acres of freehold land, except in Market-townes, or Cities, or within a mile of the sea, or for habitation of labourers in Mines, Saylers, Foresters, Sheepeheards, &c.
1722. De Foe, Relig. Courtsh., I. ii. (1840), 59. ’Tis a sorry thief would rob a cottage.
1776. Kent, Hints Gentlem. (in Gwilt, Archit., § 3005). We … are apt to look upon cottages as incumbrances and clogs to our property, when, in fact, those who occupy them are the very nerves and sinews of agriculture.
1872. E. Peacock, Mabel Heron, II. i. 4. Mrs. Heron took her round to all the labourers’ cottages.
† 2. A small temporary erection used for shelter; a cot, hut, shed, etc. Obs.
1535. Coverdale, Isa. i. 8. Ye doughter of Syon is left alone like a cotage [so 1611; 1885 booth] in a vynyearde.
1538. Leland, Itin., V. 83. In the farther Side of hit I saw ii veri poore Cotagis for Somer Dayres for Catel.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India, 165. The seruants of Mutezuma made cotages of straw for the Tamemez or carriers.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 161. Moouing houses, built vpon wheels like a shepperds cottage.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), III. 344. Sometimes I endeavoured to make the savages of my cottage comprehend that I had lost a friend.
† 3. transf. and fig. A small or humble dwelling-place; the cell of a bee, etc. Clay or earthen cottage: the ‘earthly tabernacle’ of the body. Obs.
1574. Hyll, Ord. Bees, vi. They frame by a marveilous skill and cunning their cottages of wax.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 228. The litle pretie Ant couching closely in her countrie cotage.
1624–7. Bp. Hall, Rem. Wks. (1660), 205. We … may be turned out of these clay cottages at any hours warning.
1650. Weldon, Crt. Jas. I. (1651), 123. Surely never so brave parts, and so base and abject a spirit tenanted together in any one earthen cottage.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., 189. This narrow cottage of a world.
4. ‘The term cottage has for some time past been in vogue as a particular designation for small country residences and detached suburban houses, adapted to a moderate scale of living, yet with all due attention to comfort and refinement. While, in this sense of it, the name is divested of all associations with poverty, it is convenient, inasmuch as it frees from all pretension and parade and restraint’ (Penny Cycl., Supp. (1845), I. 426). In this sense, the appellation cottage orné (ornee) was in vogue, when picturesqueness was aimed at.
1765. Walpole, Corr., 23 Aug. My new cottage … is to have nothing Gothic about it, nor pretend to call cousins with the mansion-house.
1820. Southey, Devil’s Walk. A cottage with a double coach-house, A cottage of gentility.
1825. C. M. Westmacott, Engl. Spy, I. 318. A variety of incongruous edifices called villas and cottage ornées.
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xxix. The cottage-ornée (as all middle-sized houses with verandas and French windows are now designated).
1876. Gwilt, Encycl. Archit., § 3001. The cottage orné, as it is called…. The only point to be attended to, after internal comfort has been provided for, is to present picturesque effect in the exterior.
b. In U.S. spec. A summer residence (often on a large and sumptuous scale) at a watering-place or a health or pleasure resort: see COTTAGER c.
1882. Nation (N. Y.), 7 Sept., 196. The shore of Frenchman’s Bay … begins to be dotted with these attempts at ‘cottage life.’… Cottages are rising on all the favorite sites in the neighborhood of Bar Harbor.
5. Short for cottage piano.
1880. Daily News, 7 Oct., 4/3. D’Almaine’s pianos…. Trichord cottages, from hire or taken in exchange, £10 to £12. Ibid. (1883), 11 Sept., 7/4. Moore and Moore’s iron pianofortes. Cottages from 36 Guineas.
6. attrib. and Comb., as cottage architecture, child, door, eaves, farm, garden, girl, home, nook, room, etc.; cottage-born, -rousing, adjs.; cottage allotment, a small plot of land let out to a cottager, esp. an agricultural laborer, for cultivation (see ALLOTMENT 4); cottage bonnet, a woman’s bonnet of a shape fashionable in the first half of the 19th c., and seen in early portraits of Queen Victoria; cottage chair, a simple form of folding chair; cottage farming, farming on a small scale, spade husbandry; so cottage farmer; cottage hospital, a small hospital, in a cottage or similar building, and without a resident medical staff, provided for the wants of a small community; also, a hospital arranged on the principle of having a number of detached cottages or buildings; cottage loaf, a loaf of bread formed of two rounded masses of dough, the smaller stuck on the top of the larger; cottage piano, a small upright piano.
1837. Penny Cycl., VIII. 88/2. The object of *cottage allotments is to increase the resources of the labourer.
1798. J. Malton (title), An Essay on British *Cottage Architecture:… comprising Dwellings for the Peasant and Farmer, and Retreats for the Gentleman.
1826. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. II. (1863), 425. A sudden puff of wind took at once my *cottage-bonnet.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, xiii. The little cottage bonnet and the silk scarf.
1741. Richardson, Pamela, III. 207. Such a Girl as this, *Cottage-born.
1827. Keble, Chr. Y., 3rd Epiph. Thou here didst sojourn, Cottage-born.
1805. Wordsw., Prelude, VII. Wks. (1888), 285/2. A *cottage-child—if e’er, By *cottage-door on breezy mountain-side … was seen a babe, By Nature’s gifts so favoured.
1857. Mrs. Gatty, Parables fr. Nat., Ser. II. (ed. 9), 12. Cottage children were sent to fetch water.
1827. Hood, Mids. Fairies, xvii. Like jagged icicles at *cottage eaves.
1795. C. Middleton (title), Picturesque and Architectural Views for *Cottage Farm-Houses and Country Villas.
c. 1842. Lance (title), The *Cottage Farmer.
1859. Thackeray, Virgin., i. The *Cottage-gables glared in sunshine.
1725. Thomson, Winter, 89. The *cottage hind Hangs o’er the enlivening blaze.
a. 1835. Mrs. Hemans, Homes of Eng., v. The *cottage homes of England! In thousands on her plains.
1878. J. P. Hopps, Life Jesus, ii. 9. In their little cottage-home.
1860. Merc. Marine Mag., VII. 303. The establishment of a *‘Cottage Hospital.’
1890. Abingdon Directory, The Cottage Hospital … is arranged in two stories, the ground floor comprising two large and two small wards, dispensary, nurses’ room, kitchen and laundry, and the upper floor a convalescent room and matron’s servants’ rooms.
1647. R. Stapylton, Juvenal, 67. Is there no hole, no bridge, no *cottage-nooke?
1837. Thackeray, Ravenswing, i. The little red-silk *cottage piano.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, II. xi. 195. It was quite a *cottage-room, with a lattice-window.
1785. Burns, Winter Nt. And hail’d the morning with a cheer, A *cottage-rousing craw.
1819. Wordsw., Sonn. ‘Grief, thou hast,’ Wks. (1888), 576/1. Now that the *cottage Spinning-wheel is mute.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, III. 205. Sleep they less sweetly on the *cottage thatch, Than on the dome of Kings?
