cover
/ˈkʌvɚ/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.08 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "The soldiers took cover behind a ruined building."
- "There's a $15 cover tonight."
- "We need to set another cover for the Smith party."
- "When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me."
- "The captain signalled his best fielder from short leg to cover."
- "The covers were put on just before lunch."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épi Proto-Indo-European *h₂wer- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Latin operiō Latin cooperiō Old French covrirbor. Middle English coveren English cover From Middle English coveren, borrowed from Old French covrir, cueuvrir (modern French couvrir), from Late Latin coperire, from Latin cooperiō (“to cover completely”), from co- (intensive prefix) + operiō (“to close, cover”). Displaced native Middle English thecchen and bethecchen (“to cover”) (from Old English þeccan, beþeccan (“to cover”)), Middle English helen, (over)helen, (for)helen (“to cover, conceal”) (from Old English helan (“to conceal, cover, hide”)), Middle English wrien, (be)wreon (“to cover”) (from Old English (be)wrēon (“to cover”)), Middle English hodren, hothren (“to cover up”) (from Low German hudren (“to cover up”)). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the original sense of the verb and noun cover was “hide from view” as in its cognate covert. Except in the limited sense of “cover again”, the word recover is unrelated and is cognate with recuperate. Cognate with Spanish cubrir and Portuguese cobrir.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: coveren, covrir, coperire, cooperiō
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkʌvɚ/
- British English: /ˈkʌvə/
Usage
Inflected Forms
covers (plural)
covers (present, singular)
covering (participle, present)
covered (participle, past)
covered (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
covered (first person, past)
coverest (archaic, present)
covered (past, second person)
coveredst (archaic, past)
covereth (archaic, present)