coss

See also: COSS

English

Alternative forms

• cos, kos, kós, koss

Etymology

Borrowed from Hindustani کوس / कोस (kos). Doublet of krosa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɒs/
• Rhymes: -ɒs

Noun

coss (plural cosses or coss)

1. (British India, South Asia) A measure of distance, varying from one and a quarter to two and a half English miles.
   • 1857, Brian Houghton Hodgson, Selections from the Records of the Government of Bengal, No. XXVII: Papers Relative to the Colonization, Commerce, Physical Geography, &c., &c., of the Himalaya Mountains and Nepal, p. 85:

     ... the distances (computed by marching-time as well as by reference to the Népálese kós of 2⅓ miles each) ...

   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, 'In Flood Time', In Black and White, Folio Society, published 2005, pages 410–11:

     A full half koss from bank to bank is the stream now – you can see it under the stars – and there are ten feet of water therein.

See also

• rule of coss

Anagrams

• CSOs, SCOs, Socs, socs

Old English

Alternative forms

• cos, *cus

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *kussaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /koss/, [kos]

Noun

coss m

1. kiss
   • Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church

     Martinus ġelācnode mid ǣnlīpium cosse ǣnne hrēoflīnne mannan fram his micclan coðe, and fram atelīcum hīwe his unsmēðan līċes.

     Martinus cured a leprous man of his great sickness and from the horrid appearance of his unsmooth body with a single kiss.

   mid ānum cosse of þē

   with one kiss from you

Declension

Strong a-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	coss	cossas
accusative	coss	cossas
genitive	cosses	cossa
dative	cosse	cossum

Derived terms

• cyssan

Descendants

• Middle English: cos, cus, kis, kys, kysse, kesse
  • English: kiss
  • Scots: kis
  • Yola: kesse