Cheating, a Scythe, and King Richard III

Sometimes the origin of a word and its use is not easy to determine. When that’s the case we will often feel cheated. Such is the case with two of our words for today: cozenage and defalcation. The research surrounding their meaning and etymology leaves one feeling less than satisfied. Which is what cozenage and defalcation do, too.

Defalcation is a noun meaning embezzle, or otherwise steal or misuse funds entrusted to your care. Embezzle differs from defalcation in that it includes either the act of defrauding or the use of the funds for yourself. Defalcation would be the correct word to use if the funds are misused or stolen but not for personal gain or by fraud.

Defalcation (the verb form is defalcate) came to English in the late 15th century, which is at least six decades before the word defalcate arrived. In Middle Latin there was a word defalcationem which was formed from combining de- (which meant to take away or down) and falcem, the word for sickle, scythe or pruning hook. (Our English word falcate refers to something shaped like a sickle or scythe.)

Embezzle came to English a little earlier in the 15th century, and came from the Anglo-French word embesiler. In Old French besillier meant to torment, gouge, or destroy. In about 1300 the English word meant to steal or cause to disappear, but by the 1580s embezzle was being used with our current meaning.

Cozenage is the noun form of the verb cozen, which is pronounced the same as the word cousin. Cozenage means cheating, fraud or deception (the –age suffix is pronounced “ij”).We know it came into use in English (at least in its verb form) in the 1560s, but where it came from is not known. It could have come from the French word cousiner, which according to etymonline.com means “to cheat on pretext of being a cousin”, or it could come from the Old French word coçon. Coçon referred to a trader or merchant, and came from the Latin word for horse trader, cocionem. It appears that horse traders have long had a reputation for blurring the line between getting a good deal and cheating.

The interesting thing about the definition of “acting like a cousin” is that the word cousin itself has changed meaning since the 1560s. Shakespeare, in King Richard III Act III Scene IV uses the phrase (which I will try to remember):

My noble lords and cousins all, good morrow.
I have been long a sleeper, but I trust
My absence doth neglect no great design
Which by my presence might have been concluded.

When Shakespeare used the word cousin he didn’t mean that Gloucester (the character who utters the lines) had relatives to whom he was speaking. According to The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44, in Shakespeare’s time cousin was (or also was, since it did mean aunt or uncle’s child), a title “given by a king to a nobleman, particularly to those of the council. In English writs, etc., issued by the crown, it signifies any earl.” So acting as if one was a cousin would mean impersonating royalty, something I’m sure was not appreciated.

Cousin, by the way, has some other interesting etymology, at least when comparing it in Latin. It came to English much earlier than cozen, arriving in the 12th century from the Old French word cosin. The Old French got it from Latin, where the word was consobrinus and meant your mother’s sister’s son. Latin had eight words for relationships that we would use the word cousin to cover. Consobrina meant mother’s sister’s daughter, patruelis was your father’s brother’s son, atruelis your mother’s brother’s son, amitinus your father’s sister’s son, and so on (again, according to etymonline.com).

I don’t think any of my cousins cozen, but a couple are a little falcate…