cousin
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: kŭzn
ipa: /ˈkʌzn̩/
ipa: /ˈkʌz(ə)n/
ipa: /ˈkʌzɪn/
note: US, weak vowel merger
ipa: [ˈkʰɐz.n̩]
homophone: cozen (weak vowel merger)
note: Indic
ipa: /kəˈzɪn/
rhymes: -ʌzən
Forms: form: cousins
form: cousining
form: cousined
form: cousined
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English cosin, cosine, cosyn (“blood relative, kinsman or kinswoman; any relative; nephew or niece; first cousin; grandson or granddaughter; descendant; godchild or godparent, or a relative of a godchild or godparent; (figurative) closely related or similar thing”) [and other forms], and then:
* from Anglo-Norman cosen, cosin [and other forms], Middle French cosin, and Old French cosin (“collateral male relative more distant than one’s brother; form of address used by a monarch to male monarchs or nobles”) [and other forms] (modern French cousin); and
* from Anglo-Norman cosine, Middle French cosine, and Old French cosine (“collateral female relative more distant than one’s sister; form of address used by a monarch to female monarchs or nobles”) [and other forms] (modern French cousine),
from Latin cōnsobrīnus (“maternal cousin; first cousin; relation”) (possibly through Vulgar Latin *cōsuīnus, from *cōsobīnus), from con- (prefix denoting a bringing together of several objects) + sobrīnus (“maternal cousin; sister’s son; any nephew”) (from a noun use of Proto-Italic *swezrīnos (“of or belonging to a sister”, adjective) (with the first syllable influenced by Latin soror (“sister”)), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swésōr (“sister”), possibly from *swé (“self”) + *h₁ésh₂r̥ (“blood”) (that is, a woman of one’s own blood) or *-sōr (feminine suffix)).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: [N]o, no, let me alone to cozen you rarely.
ref: 1604 (date written), Tho[mas] Dekker, [Thomas Middleton], The Honest Whore. […] (4th quarto), London: […] Nicholas Okes for Robert Basse, […], published 1616, →OCLC, Act I, signature B, verso:
text: At length she seemed to relent, or changed her tactics, for she looked over his shoulder as he sketched, and Cousined him two or three times as usual.
ref: 1857 September, “A Winter in the South”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume XV, number LXXXVIII, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, pages 441–442:
text: Though he called Mrs. Merrit aunt, and cousined all her daughters, he was really no relative whatever. His father dying when he was a small boy, he had been kindly adopted by that father's step-brother, who had married into the Merritt family.
ref: 1893, Fannie E[llsworth] Newberry, “Some of Beth’s Friends”, in The Odd One, Boston, Mass.: A. I. Bradley & Company, →OCLC, page 29:
glosses: To address (someone) as "cousin".
examples: text: Mrs. M[uddlebrain]. […] Mary, who is this young man? / Mary. That's my cousin, ma'am, just stept in to lend us a helping hand in placing the things. / […] / Shuffle. What the devil did she say about a tall grenadier, and the pantry? Mrs. Shuffle! Mrs. Shuffle! / Mary. Hush! Are you mad? Do you want to tell all the world that we're married, and get me turned away? / Shuffle. No; but the grenadier? / Mary. Came to see the cook; so to prevent all the fat being in the fire, I cousined him, and made him a relation. / Shuffle. Yes; and remember you've cousined me too.
ref: 1833, G. Herbert Rodwell, The Chimney Piece. A Farce, in One Act. […] (Miller’s Modern Acting Drama, […]; no. 5), London: John Miller, […], →OCLC, scene i, page 2:
text: [T]he old gentleman took me into the house and introduced me to the family, where I was at once cousined by them all.
ref: 1877 May 28, J[acob] Sam[ue]l Vandersloot, quoting Cyrus Sturdivant, “‘To God be All Praise’”, in The True Path; or, The Murphy Movement and Gospel Temperance. […], Philadelphia, Pa.: William Flint, […], published 1877, →OCLC, page 244:
text: [A] maiden well braced in nerve and muscle, / Far from sensual ease, to be mother of lustiest Britons, / Cousined to Romans in strength and in breadth of masterful Empire.
ref: 1885 July, Scotigena Oxoniensis [pseudonym], “London. I. The Row and Westminster. Epistle to a Friend.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CXXXVIII, number DCCCXXXVII, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood & Sons, […], →OCLC, page 135:
text: O Donald, thou wert the boy, / Steel to the bone, and like thee none! / Cousined wert thou to the great Clan Chattan, / Thou, the nodding cliff's foster son.
ref: 1885 September, “The Old Owl of the Sron”, in [John Stuart] Blackie, transl., edited by Alexander Mackenzie, The Celtic Magazine: […], volume X, number CXIX, Inverness, Inverness-shire: A[lexander] & W. Mackenzie, […], →OCLC, page 522:
text: Let me say in the beginning that even if I wanted to avoid Texas I could not, for I am wived in Texas and mother-in-lawed and uncled and aunted and cousined within an inch of my life.
ref: 1962 July, John Steinbeck, “Part 1”, in Travels with Charley in Search of America, London: William Heinemann, published 1962, →OCLC, page 201:
glosses: To regard (oneself or someone) as a cousin to another person.
examples: text: In an appendix to The Mechanic Muse, he [Hugh Kenner] finds Victorian symbolist practice serving to release the signifier from centuries of post-Enlightenment confusion about the proper wedding (or at least cousining) of word and thing.
ref: 1999, Garrett Stewart, “Modernism and the Flicker Effect”, in Between Film and Screen: Modernism’s Photo Synthesis, Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 310:
text: [P]atients would escape into the town for a bit of a fling or "cousining" as it was called. "Cousining" was a Saranac Lake euphemism that applied to a couple, both of them patients and sometimes already married with a spouse living far away, who spent time together or dated each other.
ref: 2007, Caperton Tissot, quoting Elise Chapin, “Some Offered Healing, Some Found Healing”, in Willem Tissot, editor, History between the Lines: Women’s Lives and Saranac Lake Customs, Jay, N.Y.: Graphics North, →ISBN, pages 110–111:
text: The UK has fiscal arithmetic cousined with that of Greece, but is dealing with it.
ref: 2012, David Roche, Bob McKee, “The Moral Failure of Democracy”, in Democrisis: Democracy Caused the Debt Crisis. Will It Survive It?, [London]: Independent Strategy, →ISBN, pages 12–13:
glosses: To associate with someone or something on a close basis.
examples: text: You know when you get up in the morning that you have a certain quantity of cousining to go through before the day is over, and you make up your mind to it; read a page of Seneca, add a verse to your litany, and commit yourself to Providence, like a wise man and a Christian.
ref: 1836 July, “A Chapter on Cousins”, in Dublin University Magazine, volume VIII, number XLIII, Dublin: William Curry, Jun. and Company; London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., →OCLC, page 28, column 1:
text: Who then that has a cousin, has aught to say against cousining? We do indeed often her sneeringly the expression of "Dutch cousining" or "Yankee cousining," as if there was something mean in the act of visiting those who are "next of kin." To such as do it, I feel an unconquerable aversion or excessive pity; as they appear censorious or betray a stupidity that cannot feel a consanguine tie beyond their hearth.
ref: 1845 October 20, B. C. True, “Cousining in Autumn”, in Thomas L. Harris, John Tanner, editors, The Gavel: A Monthly Periodical Devoted to Odd Fellowship and General Literature, volume II, number 3, Albany, N.Y.: John Tanner, published November 1845, →OCLC, page 80:
text: It isn't the thing for a man to be like a stranger to his own flesh and blood. I'm going cousining, Sue, down East, and I'll hunt up my relations.
ref: 1887 June, Herminius Cobb, “[The Household.] Mr. Blossom Visits His Relations.”, in The American Magazine: Supplement, volume I (New Series; volume VI overall), number 2, New York, N.Y.: The American Magazine Company, […]; London: The Christian Million Company, →OCLC, page 245, column 1:
text: The pretty wren perches now in the Governor's house—a-cousining, a-cousining.
ref: 1895, Gilbert Parker, “As Vain as Absalom”, in The Seats of the Mighty […], Toronto, Ont.: The Copp, Clark Company, published 1896, →OCLC, page 87:
text: In 1878 they were married in the Mormon Temple in St. George, 300 miles away, and he drove her back home in a hay wagon in eight days. They "cousined" (stopped with relatives) all the way.
ref: 1959 January 5, “An 80th Wedding Anniversary”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Life, volume 46, number 1, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 78:
glosses: To visit a cousin or other relation.