Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

COT, n. Sc. combs. of Eng. cot, a humble dwelling, shelter: 1. cot-folk, labourers and their dependants living in cottages on a farm; Gen.Sc.; 2. cot-house, a farmworker's cottage; Gen.Sc.; †3. cotlander, one who holds a “cotland,” a piece of arable land attached to a cottage; “a cottager, who keeps a horse for ploughing his small piece of land” (e.Lth. 1825 Jam.²); 4. cotman = Cottar (Lnk.³, Kcb.¹ 1937); “always looked on as the second in command about a farm-house” (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 142); used attrib. in quot.; 5. cottown, cotton, a collection of cot-houses, belonging to a farm or to several surrounding farms (Ags.¹, Fif.¹⁰ 1937).1. Ayr. 1786 Burns Twa Dogs ix.:
An' what poor Cot-folk pit their painch in, I own it's past my comprehension.2. Sc. 1838 Wilson's Tales of the Borders IV. 263: 
There's naething noo but to tak some cot-house.Bnff. 1918 M. Symon Wir Roup 3:
I min' on't in a wee cot-house On Kirsty's kist o' drawers.Kcb. 1789 Dmf. Weekly Jnl. (10 Feb.): 
A large new-built Cot House at Barcailzie.3.Lnk. 1782 Caled. Mercury (9 Jan.): 
The Cot-land, lying near the port of the Kirk-style of Strathaven, and Houses standing thereupon, and of the Houses in Strathaven, lying near the north parts of the said Cottage-land.Rxb. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XIX. 128:
Small tenants . . . in the village of Roxburgh are called cotlanders, possessing . . . about two acres of land each, together with a house, yard, and liberty of pasturing their cows in an adjacent loaning.4.Ayr. 1732 Ayr Presb. Reg. MS. (22 Nov.): 
George Gordoun cottman in Dachern.Ayr. 1862 J. Baxter Kirn, etc. 38:
A farmer's cotman slave.Wgt. 1710 Session Rec. Kirkinner MS. (13 Aug.): 
Alexander Fie, cotman in Boghouse in Mochrum paroch.5. Abd. 1913 J. Allardyce Byegone Days in Abdsh. 67:
The cottars paid a little money and did a good deal of work for the farmer. They were at his call whenever they were required. The Cottown was near the farm, and the young people reared there made the best of farm hands as they grew up.Fif. 1781 Caled. Mercury (14 July): 
The Cottown of Stravithy, containing 140 acres, or thereby.Fif. 1905 “S. Tytler” Daughter of the Manse i. i.:
[It] was a mile and a half distant from Rowanden Kirk and cotton.