Writers want to be careful when writing dialect. Just ’cause cousin and cozen sound alike (they’re heterographs (a subset of homophone) doesn’t mean one word can be substituted for the other.
That’s what I suspect this writer was trying to do. Write dialect. Iffen you’re a gonna make up a word to give a character some, um, character, make sure that word doesn’t already exist…with a different definition to it. Or that one word’s a noun while the other is a verb…nope, doesn’t work.
Remember, a cousin, a noun, is a relative of some sort.
To cozen is to trick someone, a verb.
Word Confusions…
…started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noir for you from either end.
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| Cousin | Cozen |
|---|---|
My Cousin, My Friend by HJA889farule is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
Small Pyramid Schemes Still Lose Money is Spaceboyjosh‘s own work and is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Pyramid schemes cozen people out of their money. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Noun
Plural: cousins |
Verb, intransitive & transitive
Third person present verb: cozens |
A child of one’s uncle or aunt
[Slang] A gullible, innocent person who is easily duped or taken advantage of |
Verb, intransitive: To cheat, deceive, or trick Verb, transitive:
|
| Examples: | |
| I can see your cousin over there.
She’s a distant cousin. He’s my third cousin, twice removed. The new motorbikes are not proving as popular as their four-wheeled cousins. The Russians and their Slavic cousins. “My illustrious cousin, Wilhelm, will be welcome here,” the Queen announced. “That guy is such a cousin,” he said laughing. |
Verb, intransitive: There, world domination, monetary and military, is cozened. He is not a man easily cozened, however. She was determined not to be cozened. Verb, transitive: He was able to cozen a profit. Composition rights are subdivided into publishing rights, which record companies often cozen the unsuspecting into signing away. He cozened his supper out of the old couple. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: cousinly Adverb: cousinly Noun: cousin-german, cousinage, cousinhood, cousinship |
Adverb: cozeningly Noun: cozenage, cozener |
| History of the Word: | |
| Middle English from the Old French cosin, from the Latin consobrinus meaning mother’s sister’s child, from con- (with) + sobrinus (second cousin), from soror meaning sister. | Late 16th century, perhaps from the obsolete Italian cozzonare meaning to cheat, from cozzone meaning middleman, broker, from the Latin cocio meaning dealer. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Cousin versus Cozen
Apple Dictionary.com
France, Anatole. The Merrie Tales of Jacques Tournebroche. Madrid, Spain: HardPress, 2018.
Ray, Michael. “Earl: Title.” Encyclopedia Britannica. <https://www.britannica.com/topic/earl-title>.
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Car Salesman With Car by everycar_listed_photos is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via VisualHunt.
