cottage

Anglo-Norman, from Old Northern French cot, cote (“hut, cottage”) + -age (“surrounding property”). Old Northern French cote probably from Old Norse kot (“hut”), cognate of Old English cot of same Proto-Germanic origin.

Slang sense “public toilet“ from 19th century, due to resemblance.

A thatched cottage in Herefordshire, United Kingdom.

A public toilet in London, United Kingdom.

• (General American)
  • IPA^(key): /ˈkɑtɪdʒ/, [ˈkɑɾɪdʒ]
  • (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑtədʒ/, [ˈkɑɾədʒ]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒtɪdʒ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cot‧tage

cottage (plural cottages)

1. A small house; a cot; a hut.
2. A seasonal home of any size or stature. A recreational home or a home in a remote location.
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ and if you don't look out there's likely to be some nice, lively dog taking an interest in your underpinning.”

   Most cottages in the area were larger and more elaborate than my home.

3. (Britain, slang, archaic) A public lavatory
   1. (Polari) as a meeting place for homosexual men.

• (public toilet as a gay meeting place): gingerbread office; tea room, tearoom, teahouse, tea house (US); see also Thesaurus:bathroom.

• cottage cheese
• cottage food operation‎
• cottage hospital
• cottage industry
• telecottage

• cosset
• cot
• coterie

cottage (third-person singular simple present cottages, present participle cottaging, simple past and past participle cottaged)

1. To stay at a seasonal home, to go cottaging.
2. (intransitive, Polari, of men) To have homosexual sex in a public lavatory; to practice cottaging.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.taʒ/

cottage m (plural cottages)

1. cottage

cottage m (uncountable)

1. cottage cheese (a cheese curd product)