different between nook vs coop

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: no?ok, IPA^(key): /n?k/
• (obsolete) enPR: no?ok, IPA^(key): /nu?k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Etymology

From Middle English noke, nok (“nook, corner, angle”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Scots neuk, nuk (“corner, angle of a square, angular object”). Perhaps from Old English hnoc, hnocc (“hook, angle”), from Proto-Germanic *hnukkaz, *hnukkô (“a bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *knewg- (“to turn, press”), from Proto-Indo-European *ken- (“to pinch, press, bend”). If so, then also related to Scots nok (“small hook”), Norwegian dialectal nok, nokke (“hook, angle, bent object”), Danish nok (“hook”), Swedish nock (“ridge”), Faroese nokki (“crook”), Icelandic hnokki (“hook”), Dutch nok (“ridge”), Low German Nocke (“tip”), Old Norse hnúka (“to bend, crouch”), Old English ?ehnycned (“drawn, pinched, wrinkled”).

Noun

nook (plural nooks)

1. A small corner formed by two walls; an alcove.

   Synonyms: alcove, ancone, recess

2. A hidden or secluded spot; a secluded retreat.

3. A recess, cove or hollow.

   Synonym: niche
4. (historical) An English unit of land area, originally ¹?₄ of a yardland but later 12+¹?₂ or 20 acres.

   Synonym: fardel

   • a. 1634, W. Noye, The Complete Lawyer, 57:

     You must note, that two Fardells of Land make a Nooke of Land, and two Nookes make halfe a Yard of Land.

   • 1903, English Dialectical Dictionary, volume IV, page 295:

     Nook, an old legal term for 12+¹?₂ acres of land; still in use at Alston.

   • 1968, November 9, The Economist, page 2:

     They poured their wine by the aume or the fust, and cut their cloth by the goad—not to be confused with the gawd, which was a measure of steel. Their nook was not cosy; it covered 20 acres.

6. (chiefly Northern England, archaic) A corner of a piece of land; an angled piece of land, especially one extending into other land.

Alternative forms

• (corner of a piece of land): nuke

Hypernyms

• (unit of area): See hundred (16,000 nooks); see carucate (16); see virgate (4); see oxgang (2)

Hyponyms

• (unit of area): See fardel (¹?₂ nook), see acre (various fractions & for further subdivisions)

Derived terms

Related terms

• inglenook

Translations

Verb

nook (third-person singular simple present nooks, present participle nooking, simple past and past participle nooked)

1. To withdraw into a nook.
2. To situate in a nook.

References

Anagrams

• Kono

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English c?upe, cupe, from Old English c?pe (“basket, cask”) or possibly from Middle Dutch cûpe (compare modern Dutch kuip, Saterland Frisian kupe, Middle Low German kûpe), from Old Saxon *kûpa, côpa (“cask”) (compare Middle Low German kôpe, Old High German chôfa, chuofa, Middle High German kuofe, modern German Kufe (“cask (feminine)”), probably from Latin c?pa, Medieval Latin c?pa (“cask”) (thus a doublet of coupe, cup, and keeve). However, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that if the word is from Latin, “it is difficult to account for the umlaut in Old English cýpe”.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ko?op, (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ku?p/
• Rhymes: -u?p
• Homophone: coupe

Noun

coop (plural coops)

1. A basket, pen or enclosure for birds or small animals.
2. A wickerwork basket (kipe) or other enclosure for catching fish.
3. (figuratively, slang) A narrow place of confinement, a cage; a jail, a prison.
   • 1785, William Cowper, “The Garden”, in The Task, a Poem, in Six Books. By William Cowper [...] To which are Added, by the Same Author, An Epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq. Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools, and The History of John Gilpin, London: Printed for J[oseph] Johnson, No. 72 St. Paul's Church-Yard, OCLC 221351486; republished as The Task. A Poem. In Six Books. To which is Added, Tirocinium: or, A Review of Schools, new edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed for Thomas Dobson, bookseller, in Second-street, second door above Chestnut-street, 1787, OCLC 23630717, page 87:

     'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wi?h to ?hine, the thir?t to be amus'd, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing, / Unpeople all our counties, of ?uch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, loo?e, / And wanton vagrants, as make London, va?t / And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.

   • 1968, Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of the Underworld: British and American; being the Vocabularies of Crooks, Criminals, Racketeers, Beggars and Tramps, Convicts, the Commercial Underworld, the Drug Traffic, the White Slave Traffic, Spivs, 3rd edition, rev. and much enl., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, OCLC 311502654; republished as A Dictionary of the Underworld: British and American, Abingdon, Oxon.; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, ISBN 978-1-317-44552-4:

     coop. A (gen., from ca. 1880, a country-town) prison: 1785, Sessions Papers of the Old Bailey, Sept., p. 1111, 'He has been in coop for a week'; […]

4. (obsolete) A barrel or cask for holding liquids.

Hyponyms

• (enclosure for birds): chicken coop, hencoop, henhouse

Translations

Verb

coop (third-person singular simple present coops, present participle cooping, simple past and past participle cooped)

1. (transitive) To keep in a coop.
2. (transitive) To shut up or confine in a narrow space; to cramp.
   • 1706, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous works of Mr. John Locke: viz. I. Of the Conduct of the Understanding. II. An Examination of P. Malebranche's Opinion of Seeing All Things in God. III. A Discourse of Miracles. IV. Part of a Fourth Letter for Toleration. V. Memoirs Relating to the Life of Anthony First Earl of Shaftsbury. To which is Added, VI. His New Method of a Common-Place-Book, Written Originally in French, and Now Translated into English, London: Printed by W. B. for A. and J. Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row; republished in The Works of John Locke. In Ten Volumes, volume III, 10th edition, London: Printed for J[oseph] Johnson [et al.], 1801, OCLC 53106290, page 223:

     But the contempt of all other knowledge, as if it were nothing in comparison of law or physic, of astronomy or chemistry, or perhaps some yet meaner part of knowledge, wherein I have got some smattering, or am somewhat advanced, is not only the mark of a vain or little mind; but does this prejudice in the conduct of the understanding, that it coops it up within narrow bounds, and hinders it from looking abroad into other provinces of the intellectual world, […]
3. (transitive, intransitive, politics, historical) To unlawfully confine one or more voters to prevent them from casting their ballots in an election.
4. (intransitive, law enforcement, slang) Of a police officer: to sleep or relax while on duty. [from 1960s.]
5. (transitive, obsolete) To make or repair barrels, casks and other wooden vessels; to work upon in the manner of a cooper.

Derived terms

• coop up

Etymology 2

Possibly from coop, above. Sense 2 may be from English coup (“to tilt, overturn, upset”).

Alternative forms

• coup

Pronunciation

• (Sense 1): (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ku?p/
• (Sense 2): (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ka?p/

Noun

coop (plural coops)

1. (regional, England, Scotland) A cart with sides and ends made from boards, enabling it to carry manure, etc.
2. (regional, England, Scotland) A cart which opens at the back to release its load; a tumbril.

Etymology 3

Origin uncertain; compare English cop (“top, summit (especially of a hill); head”).

Noun

coop (plural coops)

1. (Scotland) A small heap.

Etymology 4

From cooperative, by shortening.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k??.?p/
• (General American) enPR: k??p, IPA^(key): /?ko?.?p/
• Hyphenation: co?op

Noun

coop (plural coops)

1. Alternative form of co-op.

Anagrams

• OPOC, POCO

Spanish

Noun

coop f (plural coops)

1. Abbreviation of cooperativa.