Cote

2 Ch 32 'stalls for all manner of beasts, and cotes (1611 ' coats ') for flocks ' (RV ' flocks in folds '). Cf. Milton, Comus, 344— ' Mi(;ht we but heitr The folded flocks, penned in their wattled oote ; which Matthew Arnold borrowed in The Scholar Gipsy— ' Oo, shepherd, and untie the wattled cotes.' The word was orig. used of any small house, like the mod. use of cot (which was the same word in Old Eng. in the neuter, cote being fem.)

and cottage (which was perhaps a cote and its append- ages— Murray). Thus Langland, Piers PI. viii. 16 — * Bothe prynces poleyses and pore mennes cotes.' No doubt the sheep often shared the shepherd's ' cote,' as in the Shep. Calender, Deo. 77, 78 — • And learned of light«r timber cotes to frame, Such as might save my sheep and me fro ttname.' In course of time the word was restricted to a slight building for sheltering small animals in, esp. sheep.

'Slieepcote' occurs 1 S 24', 2 S 7", 1 Ch 17'. Cottage is used in the sense of hut in Is 1' (RV ' booth ') 24-'" (RV ' hut '), Zeph 2« (RVm ' caves '), Sir 29-' ' a mean cottage ' (RV ' a shelter of logs '), much as cote above. J. Hastinqs.