cosa

See also: Cosa, cósa, and cosà

Languages (16)

Aragonese • Asturian • Catalan • Galician • Interlingua • Irish • Istriot • Italian • Old French • Old Irish • Old Leonese • Old Spanish • Portuguese • Romanian • Sicilian • Spanish

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Page categories

Aragonese

FWOTD – 8 January 2016

Etymology

From Latin causa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkosa/
• Syllabification: co‧sa
• Rhymes: -osa

Noun

cosa f (plural cosas)

1. thing (that which exists as a separate entity)
   • 2010, Academia de l’Aragonés, Propuesta ortografica de l'Academia de l'Aragonés, 2nd edition, Edacar, page 67:

     Nombres propios d’animals, cosas y conceptos singularizaus: […]

     Proper names of animals, things and singularised concepts: […]

Pronoun

cosa

1. nothing (not any thing)
   • May-August 2014, Fuellas, Consello d’a Fabla Aragonesa, page 26:

     Respondioron: muito 0,00 % / prou 33,3 % / poco 66,7 % / cosa 0,00 %

     They answered: a lot 0.00% / enough 33.3% / a little 66.7% / nothing 0.00%

Asturian

Alternative forms

• cousa (Western Asturian)

Etymology

From Old Leonese cosa.

Noun

cosa f (plural coses)

1. thing

Catalan

Etymology

Inherited from Latin causa. Compare Occitan causa and chausa, French chose, Spanish cosa, Italian cosa. Doublet of causa, a borrowing from Latin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈkɔ.zə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈkɔ.za]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

Noun

cosa f (plural coses)

1. thing
2. affair, matter

Derived terms

• alguna cosa
• coseta
• qualsevol cosa

Pronoun

cosa

1. (Alghero, Italianism) what (interrogative)

   Cosa voleu? ― What do you want?

Usage notes

• The Italianism cosa? ('what?') is found within Algherese and is commonly used by speakers thereof, but is deemed by the IEC as something to be avoided.

See also

• qui cosa
• per cosa
• percosa

References

• “cosa” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
• “cosa”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “cosa”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “cosa” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
• El Català de l'Alguer : un model d'àmbit restringit, Barcelona, 2003, →ISBN, page 33

Galician

Verb

cosa

1. inflection of coser:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Interlingua

Noun

cosa (plural cosas)

1. thing

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkosˠə/

Noun

cosa f pl

1. nominative/dative plural of cos

Mutation

Mutated forms of cosa

radical	lenition	eclipsis
cosa	chosa	gcosa

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Istriot

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *koḱs-

Proto-Italic *koksā

Late Latin coxa

Istriot cosa

Inherited from Late Latin coxa (“thigh”), from Proto-Italic *koksā, from Proto-Indo-European *koḱs- (“joint, limb”).

Noun

cosa f

1. thigh

Italian

Etymology

Inherited from Latin causa. Doublet of the borrowing causa. The pronoun is a clipping of che cosa.

Pronunciation

• (Central and Southern Italy) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.za/, (traditional) /ˈkɔ.sa/
  • Rhymes: -ɔza, (traditional) -ɔsa
• (northern Italy) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.za/

  • Audio (Northern):

    (file)

  • Rhymes: -ɔza
• (northern Italy, dialects) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.sa/
  • Rhymes: -ɔsa
• Hyphenation: cò‧sa

Noun

cosa f (plural cose)

1. thing, matter

Pronoun

cosa

1. what?

   Cosa c'è? ― What's the matter?

2. what!

Derived terms

• che cosa
• Cosa Nostra
• qualcosa

Anagrams

• caos, caso, osca

Old French

Noun

cosa oblique singular, f (oblique plural cosas, nominative singular cosa, nominative plural cosas)

1. (very early Old French) alternative form of chose

Usage notes

• Used in the Oaths of Strasbourg

Old Irish

Noun

cosa

1. alternative spelling of cossa

Article

cosa

1. alternative spelling of cossa

Pronoun

cosa·

1. alternative spelling of cossa

Mutation

Mutation of cosa

radical	lenition	nasalization
cosa	chosa	cosa pronounced with /ɡ-/

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Old Leonese

Alternative forms

• cousa (Bierzo, Cepeda; Western León)

Etymology

From Latin causa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkosa/

Noun

cosa m (plural cosas)

1. thing
   • 1017, Fuero de León:

     Mandamos que nengunno non sea ossado de tomar neguna cosa per roba dela yglesia;

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1243, Venta de una heredad en Villar (Cepeda)‎^[1]:

     de la gram cousa ata la pechena

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1247, Fuero de Campumanes‎^[2]:

     Conuszuda cosa sea a todos los omes

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1256, "El abad del Montasterio de Espinareda concede fueros a los pobladores de Outero de Langre."‎^[3]:

     Conoçuda cousa sea a quantos esta carta viren e audiren

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• Asturian: cosa, cousa
• Leonese: cousa
• Mirandese: cousa

Old Spanish

Etymology

From Latin causa. Cognates include Middle English cause, Old French chose, Old Galician-Portuguese cousa, Italian cosa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkoza/

Noun

cosa

1. thing

Descendants

• Ladino: koza
• Spanish: cosa

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈko.zɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈko.zɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈko.za/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈko.zɐ/

• Audio (Portugal (Porto)):

  (file)

• Homophones: coza, cousa
• Rhymes: -ozɐ
• Hyphenation: co‧sa

Verb

cosa

1. inflection of coser:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian коса (kosa).

Noun

cosa f (plural cosale)

1. spit, sandbank

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	cosa	cosaua		cosale	cosalele
genitive-dative	cosale	cosalei		cosale	cosalelor
vocative	cosa			cosalelor

References

• cosa in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

Sicilian

Etymology

From Latin causa. Compare Italian cosa. Doublet of causa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.sa/
• Rhymes: -ɔsa
• Hyphenation: cò‧sa

Noun

cosa f (plural cosi)

1. thing

Derived terms

• cosa amara
• cosa bona
• cosa duci
• cosa dura
• cosa granni
• cosa moḍḍa
• cosa nica
• cosa p' aruttari
• cosa rara
• cosa tinta
• cosa àcita
• cusuzza

See also

• chi
• cui

Further reading

• Traina, Antonino (1868), “cosa”, in Nuovo vocabolario Siciliano-Italiano [New Sicilian-Italian vocabulary] (in Italian), Liber Liber, published 2020, pages 994–997

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkosa/ [ˈko.sa]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -osa
• Syllabification: co‧sa

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Spanish cosa, inherited from Latin causa. Doublet of the borrowing causa. Cognates include French chose, Italian cosa, Portuguese coisa.

Noun

cosa f (plural cosas)

1. thing (object, concept)
2. (informal) thing (living being or creature)

   cosas hermosas ― pretty [little] things

Alternative forms

• coso (dialectal, for masculine nouns)

Derived terms

• cosilla (diminutive)
• cosita (diminutive)

• alguna cosa
• arroz con cosas
• como si tal cosa
• cosa de
• cosa del otro jueves
• cosa en sí
• cosa juzgada
• cosa perdida
• cosa rara
• cosas del mundo
• cosas que van y vienen
• cosas veredes
• dar cosa
• estado de cosas
• Internet de las cosas
• llamar las cosas por su nombre
• poca cosa
• poquita cosa
• qué cosa
• ser cosa de
• una cosa es predicar, y otra dar trigo

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

cosa

1. inflection of coser:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “cosa”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025