Cottagers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of individuals who reside in small, often rural homes or cottages, typically enjoying a more relaxed lifestyle away from urban areas
2. People who inhabit cozy, smaller dwellings usually found in scenic locations, often using them for leisure or vacation purposes
3. Residents of quaint, modest houses often located in countryside settings, who may engage in seasonal or recreational activities in their homes

Etymology: Before "cottager" named a villager, the "cottage" it lived in was simply a small hut. The noun "cottage" came into English in the Middle Ages from Anglo-Norman and Old French "cotage", a word built on "cote", a shelter or hovel, which is itself of Germanic origin. Its base sense was modest: a humble dwelling, often with little land attached, rather than the picturesque country home it suggests today. "Cottager" adds the English suffix "-er", which marks someone who lives in or belongs to something. A cottager was therefore a person who lived in a cottage, and the word was applied to rural residents of such small dwellings. The Old English suffix "-ere" that lies behind this ending appears in many other agent nouns, such as "baker" and "farmer". The plural "cottagers" is simply the plural form of "cottager", referring to several such residents at once.

Synonyms: residents, inhabitants, dwellers, tenants, occupants