| 释义 |
▪ I. † coss, n.1 Obs.
Also cosse.
[a. obs. F. cosse, ad. It. cosa thing, a translation of Arab. shai ‘thing’, the term applied to the unknown quantity (or x) of an equation, etc.]
In Rule of Coss, an early name for Algebra.
1570Dee Math. Pref. 6 That great Arithmeticall Arte of æquation: commonly called the Rule of Coss, or Algebra. 1579Digges Stratiot. 55 This Art of Algebra or Rule of Cosse as the Italians terme it. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Cosse and Cossick, the old Word for Algebra. 1796Hutton Math. Dict. I. 335 Coss, Rule of, meant the same as Algebra, by which name it was for some time called, when first introduced into Europe through the Italians, who named it Regola de Cosa, the Rule of the thing; the unknown quantity, or that which was required in any question, being called cosa, the thing.
▪ II. ‖ coss, cos, n.2 Anglo-Indian.|kɒs|
Also 7 (course, courss), 9 cose, kos, koss. (Pl. same as sing.)
[a. Hindī kōs, Pālī koss:—Skr. kroça a measure of distance, but orig. a call, calling distance: cf. cooee.]
A measure of length in India, varying in different parts from 2½ miles or more down to about 11/4.
‘Actual measurement of road distance between 5 pair of Akbar's kos-minárs (coss-pyramids) near Delhi, gave a mean of 2m. 4f. 158yds’ (Yule).
1616Terry in Purchas Pilgrims II. 1468 (Y) The length of those..Provinces is..1000 Courses, every Indian Course being two English miles. 1677Sir T. Herbert Trav. 63 A pilgrimage to Asmeer albeit a hundred and thirty course or two hundred English miles distant thence. 1753Hanway Trav. (1762) II. xiv. v. 363 note, They reckon it two hundred and two coss, each coss of four thousand yards. 1816‘Quiz’ Grand Master iv. 76 note, It is calculated, that an Indian coss is an English mile and a half; but it differs in the eastern and western parts. 1826Leyden & Erskine tr. Mem. Zehir-Ed-Din 393, I directed Chikmâk Beg..to measure the distance from Agra to Kâbul; that at every nine kos he should raise a minâr, or turret, twelve gez in height. 1884E. Arnold in Contemp. Rev. Sept. 422 A Koss and a half of a Koss went they. 1893Kipling Many Invent. 193 He may have gone to the next hut... It is only four koss. 1901― Kim ii. 50 Think how far thou art on the road—an hundred kos from Lahore already. 1912― Diversity of Creatures (1917) 227, I stood in the line..one koss, two koss distant.
▪ III. coss, n.3 Sc.
[f. next verb.]
Exchange, barter.
1637D. Dickson Pract. Wks. (1845) I. 150 Here we have Paul's coss and quitting of all other things that he may get Christ.
▪ IV. coss, v. Chiefly Sc.
Forms: 5 couss, 5–6 cose, 6 cois(s, coce, coase, 6, 9 coss.
[Of uncertain derivation and history. Cf. (old and dial.) F. cosson a re-seller, one who buys and sells over again (Godefroy) = It. cozzone ‘a horse-courser’ (Florio):—L. cōciōnem a broker.
But of these words the -on- is an integral part; hence the derived vb. is in L. cōciōnārī, It. cozzonare, and this would not naturally become coss in English. There is also the difficult question of the relation of coss to corse v. and to scorce v., in the same sense, as to which see the latter.]
trans. To barter, exchange. Also absol.
c1470Henry Wallace x. 470 Bruce said: Fer ma on this day we haiff losyt. Wallace ansuerd: Allace, thai war ewill cosyt [v.r. coist]. 14..Lyarde in Rel. Ant. II. 281 Coussid awaye at Appilby faire, As wyfis makis bargans, a horse for a mare. 1513Douglas æneis ix. v. 188 The traste Alethys With hym hes helmys cossyt [v.r. cosit; Virgil ix. 307 galeam permutat], and gaue him his. 1570Regent's Trag. ii. in Sempill Ballates 70 Steilling vp ane close, Possest in purpois, lyfe for lyfe to cose. 1573Davidson Comm. Vprichtnes xlvi. (Jam.), Let not the lufe of this lyfe temporall..Stay you to cois with lyfe celestial. 1580Baret Alv. C 1268 To Cope, or coase, cambire. 1808Jamieson, Coss, to exchange. Loth., Berwicks.
Hence ˈcossing († cosing) vbl. n.
1597Montgomerie Cherrie & Slae 795 Sic coissing but loissing All honest men may vse. 1597Skene De Verb. Sign. s.v. Bote, In all excambion, or cossing of landes. 1617Markham Caval. ii. 136 The mystery of Horse-cosing.
▪ V. coss
obs. f. kiss n., cos n. |