cozen

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The Word of the Day for November 15 is: 

cozen   \KUZ-un\   verb
     1 : to deceive, win over, or induce to do something by artful coaxing and 
wheedling or shrewd trickery
    *2 : to gain by artful coaxing or tricky deception

Example sentence:
     Five-year-old Mimi managed to cozen a second helping of dessert from her 
guileless grandmother.

Did you know?
     "Be not utterly deceived (or to speak in plainer terms, cozened at their 
hands)." Denouncing the evils of the times, 16th-century Puritan pamphleteer 
Philip Stubbes thus warned against unscrupulous merchants. "Cozen" may not seem 
a "plainer term" to us, but it might have to the horse-dependent folks of the 
16th century. Some linguists have theorized that "cozen" traces to the Italian 
noun "cozzone," which means "horse trader." Horse-trading, as in the actual 
swapping of horses, usually involved bargaining and compromise -- and, in fact, 
the term "horse-trading" has come to suggest any shrewd negotiation. It seems 
safe to assume that not all of these negotiations were entirely on the 
up-and-up. Given its etymological association with horse traders, therefore, 
it's not too surprising that "cozen" suggests deception and fraud.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.





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