Cosy

How to spell cosy

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cosy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cosy mean?

1. adjectiveWarm, comfortable and sheltered in a way that makes a place or situation pleasant.

Cosy in a sentence

• The cabin felt warm and cosy once the fire was lit.

• They spent the rainy afternoon cosy under a thick blanket.

Where does cosy come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Cosy is a genuinely puzzling word whose origins are not fully settled, so it is best treated with caution. It surfaces in written English in the early 1700s in Scotland, where it first appeared in forms such as 'cosie' and 'colsie', meaning snug, sheltered and comfortable. The most widely accepted view is that it was borrowed from a Scandinavian source, since it closely resembles the Norwegian 'kose seg', meaning 'to make oneself comfortable', and the related 'koselig', meaning 'snug' or 'pleasant'. There are also parallels in Swedish dialect words for sheltering or warming oneself, which fits the idea of a word carried into Scots by North Sea contact. From Scotland it spread into general British use over the 1800s, and the British and Canadian spelling kept the 's', while American English settled on 'cozy' with a 'z'. Because the early history is so murky, scholars genuinely flag the origin as uncertain rather than proven.

How the word is built

• cosy (a single root word of uncertain, probably Scandinavian origin); the final -y is part of the original word itself, not the English adjective ending you might expect

British and American spelling

Cosy is the British spelling. American English spells it cozy.