cog
/kɔɡ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.01 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A gear; especially, a cogwheel.
noun
An unimportant individual in a greater system.
noun
A projection or tenon at the end of a beam designed to fit into a matching opening of another piece of wood to form a joint.
verb
Of an electric motor or generator, to snap preferentially to certain positions when not energized.
Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "She said: " We're not wasting time. While the cogs of Parliament continue to whir, we will continue to work on the rolling stock and infrastructure strategy, the national transport integrated strategy, and our accessibility roadmap."
- "just a cog in the machine"
- "All the old problems, the stale ones, both personal and general, had been solved by one mighty slash. Heaven alone knew as yet what others might arise - and it looked as though there would be plenty of them - but they would be new. I was emerging as my own master, and no longer a cog."
- "1976, Norman Denny (English translation), Victor Hugo (original French), Les Misérables ‘There are twenty-five of us, but they don’t reckon I’m worth anything. I’m just a cog in the machine.’"
- "1988, David Mamet, Speed-the-Plow Your boss tells you “take initiative,” you best guess right—and you do, then you get no credit. Day-in, … smiling, smiling, just a cog."
- "The name of the ship was Dawn Treader. She was only a little bit of a thing compared with one of our ships, or even with the cogs, dromonds, carracks and galleons which Narnia had owned when Lucy and Edmund had reigned there under Peter as the High King, for nearly all navigation had died out in the reigns of Caspian's ancestors."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gēw- Proto-Indo-European *gugāder. Proto-Germanic *kuggōder. Old Norse *koggrbor. Middle English cogge English cog Inherited from Middle English cogge, from Old Norse *kogge, *koggr (see Old Swedish kogge, kogger), from Proto-Germanic *kuggō (“cog, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *gugā (“hump, ball”), from *gēw- (“to bend, arch”). Compare Lithuanian gugà (“pommel, hump, hill”). Cognates includes: Swedish kugg, kugge (“cog tooth”), Norwegian kugg (“cog”). The meaning of “cog” in carpentry derives from association with a tooth on a cogwheel. Compare Old Swedish koggavidher (“cog wood”), “wood reserved for a millwheel”. See also dialectal English cag (“stump”), keg; Old Norse kaggi (“keg”) + -gi (diminutive suffix), from the Germanic base *kagô (“bush, branch, stalk, stump”); also found in Bavarian Kag (“the stalk or stem of a cabbage”); dialectal Swedish kage (“treestump; piece of wood; post”), kagg or kagge (“scythe handle”); Norwegian Nynorsk kage or kagge (“low lying bush, small tree”), dialectal kagg (“scythe handle”); Old English ċeacga (“broom, furze, gorse”), whence English chag (“branch”), also Old English cyċġel, English cudgel (“knotty club”). The ultimate origin could be related to English cog (“cargo boat”) (Dutch kogge), probably named for its “round swollen” appearance.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kɔɡ/
- British English: /kɒɡ/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Food.