Word of the Day

: November 23, 2007

cotton

verb KAH-tun

What It Means

1 : to take a liking -- used with to

2 : to come to understand -- used with to or on to

cotton in Context

It took fans a while to cotton to the changes in the championship series, but they now love the new play-off format.

Did You Know?

The noun "cotton" first appeared in English around 700 years ago. It comes, via Anglo-French and Old Italian, from the Arabic word for cotton, "qutun" or "qutn." In the 15th century, "cotton" acquired a verb use meaning "to form a nap on (cloth)." Though this verb sense is now obsolete, our modern-day use might have spun from it. In 1822, English philologist Robert Nares reported that "cotton" had been used to mean "to succeed" and speculated that this use came from "the finishing of cloth, which when it cottons, or rises to a regular nap, is nearly or quite complete." The meaning of "cotton" shifted from "to get on well" to "to get on well together," and eventually to the sense we know today, "to take to." The "understand" sense appeared later, in the early 20th century.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.