Sheepcot

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A simple shelter or enclosed area built to house and protect sheep from weather and predators
2. A pen or cote designed to hold and safeguard a flock of sheep
3. An enclosure or structure where sheep are kept and sheltered

Etymology: Before it named a small building for housing sheep, "cot" meant something much humbler: a simple dwelling or hut, and the word traces back to Old English "cote," which was used for cottages and shelters of many kinds. "Sheepcot" is a plain compound of "sheep" and "cot," and its literal sense is a shelter or fold where sheep were kept, often in the open countryside. "Cot" itself had a broader range in Old English, and it survives today in "cottage," which comes from the same root through the diminutive form "cotage." The sheepcot, then, is a dwelling for flocks rather than people, a sense that follows naturally from the older meaning of "cot" as any small shelter. The compound is found in English records from at least the medieval period, and it belongs to a group of agricultural words such as "sheepfold" and "sheephouse" that describe the same kind of structure.

Synonyms: sheepfold, pen