And, um. You know you asked me once to check for 'Brit-speak'?
Well, um. The use of 'cot'... in British dialect now, it doesn't make sense here. I know from seeing it in other places, that in this context it means a collapsible or temporary bed. But in Brit, it exclusively indicates a bed for a baby.
(Specifically, in my dialect, it's the larger, usually wooden, permanent, rectangular sort of baby's bed, you know, with the bars. 'Crib' means a cradle, bassinet or basket for a very young baby.)
HOWEVER, I'm a little uncertain, because I don't think 'cots' in that sense were actually used in this period. (Baskets and cradles, sure, but the sort of 'cot' I'm thinking of I'm pretty sure was a furnishing of the 19th century nursery- as I understand it, in days of the wet-nurse, nurseries in the Victorian sense only came in when the pre-industrial wet-nurse was replaced by the more 'modern' nanny and her nursemaid.) Now, it's possible that the American usage is actually an older one that was commandeered in England to mean something rather more specific. (I tend to let 'fall' go for just this reason- it's not used in that way in Britain any more, but I think it actually pre-dates 'autumn'.)
In fact, the use of 'cot' that I'm aware of before the great parenting revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century is as a truncation of 'cottage'. So I don't know whether it's period or not.
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Re: I had a real difficulty picking this particular one out...
Date: 2011-02-11 07:18 pm (UTC)Well, um. The use of 'cot'... in British dialect now, it doesn't make sense here. I know from seeing it in other places, that in this context it means a collapsible or temporary bed. But in Brit, it exclusively indicates a bed for a baby.
(Specifically, in my dialect, it's the larger, usually wooden, permanent, rectangular sort of baby's bed, you know, with the bars. 'Crib' means a cradle, bassinet or basket for a very young baby.)
HOWEVER, I'm a little uncertain, because I don't think 'cots' in that sense were actually used in this period. (Baskets and cradles, sure, but the sort of 'cot' I'm thinking of I'm pretty sure was a furnishing of the 19th century nursery- as I understand it, in days of the wet-nurse, nurseries in the Victorian sense only came in when the pre-industrial wet-nurse was replaced by the more 'modern' nanny and her nursemaid.) Now, it's possible that the American usage is actually an older one that was commandeered in England to mean something rather more specific. (I tend to let 'fall' go for just this reason- it's not used in that way in Britain any more, but I think it actually pre-dates 'autumn'.)
In fact, the use of 'cot' that I'm aware of before the great parenting revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century is as a truncation of 'cottage'. So I don't know whether it's period or not.