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.
Meanings
A tooth on a gear.
A gear; especially, a cogwheel.
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. 2025 November 12, David Stubbings, “Rail reform bill: pledge to rebuild trust of passengers”, in RAIL, number 1048, page 6:
An unimportant individual in a greater system.
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.
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. 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 60:
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.’
just a cog in the machine
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.
One of the rough pillars of stone or coal left to support the roof of a mine.
tr diş (tooth on a gear) · gl niquifate (unimportant individual) · sh шрафић (unimportant individual) · gl macho (tooth on a gear) · pl ząb (tooth on a gear) · gl badanas (unimportant individual) · mk запче (tooth on a gear) · sv kugge (unimportant individual) · ru ви́нтик (unimportant individual) · ko 이 (tooth on a gear) · nl radertje (unimportant individual) · bg зъбе́ц (tooth on a gear) · nl tandwieltand (tooth on a gear) · cmn 齒 /齿 (tooth on a gear) · pt dente (tooth on a gear) · sh зу́бац (tooth on a gear) · gd fiacaill (tooth on a gear) · sh zupčaničić (unimportant individual) · sk zub (tooth on a gear) · gl belanxín (unimportant individual) · gl dente (tooth on a gear) · bg ца́пфа (carpentry: a projection or tenon) · fr pion (unimportant individual) · es leva (tooth on a gear) · ru зубе́ц (tooth on a gear) · uk зубе́ць (tooth on a gear) · sh зупчаничић (unimportant individual) · ca dent (tooth on a gear) · id nyamuk (unimportant individual) · hu fog (tooth on a gear) · de Rädchen (unimportant individual) · sh фе́дер (carpentry: a projection or tenon) · fr rouage (unimportant individual) · ca peó (unimportant individual) · pdt Zak (tooth on a gear) · mi nihowhiti (tooth on a gear) · es álabe (tooth on a gear) · cs zub (tooth on a gear) · sh féder (carpentry: a projection or tenon) · sh zúbac (tooth on a gear) · it rotellina (unimportant individual) · nl tand (tooth on a gear) · es levador (tooth on a gear) · de Zahn (tooth on a gear) · ja 歯 (tooth on a gear) · sv tand (tooth on a gear) · th ฟันเฟือง (tooth on a gear) · eo dento (tooth on a gear) · ko 톱니 (tooth on a gear) · fi hammas (tooth on a gear) · id gerigi (tooth on a gear) · az diş (tooth on a gear) · no tannhjul (tooth on a gear) · ru ме́лкая со́шка (unimportant individual) · de Zapfen (carpentry: a projection or tenon) · be зубе́ц (tooth on a gear) · fi ratas (unimportant individual) · cy dant (tooth on a gear) · fr dent (tooth on a gear) · sv kugge (tooth on a gear) · cs nula (unimportant individual) · sh šrafić (unimportant individual)
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.
Meanings
To furnish with a cog or cogs.
(intransitive) Of an electric motor or generator, to snap preferentially to certain positions when not energized.
From Middle English cogge, from Middle Dutch kogge, cogghe (modern kogge), from Proto-Germanic *kuggō, from Proto-Indo-European *gugā (“hump, ball”) (compare Lithuanian gugà (“pommel, hump, hill”)), from *gēw- (“to bend, arch”). See etymology 1 above.
Meanings
(historical) A partially clinker-built, flat-bottomed, square-rigged mediaeval ship of burden or war, with a round, bulky hull and a single mast, typically 15 to 25 meters in length, in use from ca. 1150 to 1500.
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. 1952, C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:
(historical) The hypothetical precursor ship type of the above said to be in use during the early Middle Ages, variously alleged to be Frisian or Scandinavian.
(broadly) A small fishing boat.
Forms
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cogs
Number=Plur
lexicographic
Translations (10)
de Kogge (type of ship) · fi koggi (type of ship) · nl kogge (type of ship) · sv kogg (type of ship) · cs koga (type of ship) · ru когг (type of ship) · ca coca (type of ship) · es coca (type of ship) · gl coca (type of ship) · sh кога (type of ship)
Uncertain. Both verb and noun appear first in 1532.
Meanings
To load (a die) so that it can be used to cheat.
To cheat; to play or gamble fraudulently.
1726, Jonathan Swift (debated), Molly Mog
For guineas in other men's breeches, / Your gamesters will palm and will cog.
To seduce, or draw away, by adulation, artifice, or falsehood; to wheedle; to cozen; to cheat.
I'll mountebank their loves,
Cog their hearts from them. c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
To plagiarize.
I wasn't able to translate two verses in Virgil or Homer , without “ cogging " from some fellow - student ; but I was eternally repeating passages from the poems of Byron , Moore , and Scott ; while I gloried in the soul - stirring ... 1879, Dennis O'Sullivan, The Stirring Adventures of Corp'l Morgan Rattler, F. Tousey, →OCLC, page 8:
[…] his themes and exercises were in constant demand for what we called cogging and American students rather grandly called plagiarization. Shakespeare and Eliot plagiarized; we grimly cogged in the early morning-oh, […] 1979, Tri-Quarterly, numbers 46-47, page 273:
Coming to journalism, how many of us have not been guilty at some stage of 'cogging' from other articles, […] 2006, Verve: The Spirit of Today's Woman, volume 14, numbers 4-6, page 51:
To obtrude or thrust in, by falsehood or deception; to palm off.
October 3, 1718, John Dennis, letter to S. T. , Esq; On the Deceitfulness of Rumour
Fustian tragedies […] have […] been cogg'd upon the town for Master-pieces.
to cog in a word
Forms
Spelling
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Labels
Source
cogged
Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part
lexicographic
cogged
Tense=Past
lexicographic
cogs
Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres
lexicographic
cogging
Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part
lexicographic
Translations (2)
nl valsspelen (cheat at dice) · nl bedriegen (cheat at dice)