cozen

Use this forum to suggest Good Words for Professor Beard.
William Hupy
Senior Lexiterian
Posts: 611
Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:14 pm

cozen

Postby William Hupy » Fri Apr 24, 2015 9:20 am

Now here is a word I was not familiar with until just this morning. It means to defraud or cheat. But even more interesting is that it comes from the French "cousiner" and yes it is "related" to cousin, as it is cheating on the pretext of being a cousin. I do not know about any of you, but if a stranger approached me and claimed that he was my cousin and wanted to borrow $1,000 I would be more than a little suspicious.
William A. Hupy

Perry Lassiter
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 3333
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:41 pm
Location: RUSTON, LA
Contact:

Re: cozen

Postby Perry Lassiter » Sat Apr 25, 2015 12:00 am

There is also an expression "cozen up to" someone, which I've always taken as in your last example, i.e. To get close to someone to ask for something.
pl


Return to “Good Word Suggestions”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 29 guests