n.
- A narrow bed, especially one made of canvas on a collapsible frame.
- Chiefly British. A crib.
[Hindi khāṭ, from Sanskrit khaṭvā, from Tamil kaṭṭu, to bind, tie.]
WORD HISTORY People might assume that there is nothing particularly exotic about the history of the word cot. However, cot is a good example of how some words borrowed from other cultures become so firmly naturalized over time that they lose their émigré flavor. The British first encountered the object denoted by cot, a light frame strung with tapes or rope, in India, where their trading stations had been established as early as 1612. The word cot, first recorded in English in 1634, comes from khāṭ, the Hindi name for the contrivance. During subsequent years, cot has been used to denote other types of beds, including in British usage a crib.
