Cossack
(ˈkɒsæk)
Also 6 Cassacke, 7 Cossache, -aque, Cassok, Kosack, 7–8 Cosack, -ak, 8 Cossac, 9– Cossacque, Kossak, Kozack, -ak.
[a. Turkī quzzāq adventurer, guerilla. ‘In India it became common in sense of predatory horseman, freebooter’ (Yule).]
1. Name of a warlike Turkish people now subject to Russia, occupying the parts north of the Black Sea. From them the Poles organized a body of light horsemen, in which capacity they formed an important element of the Russian army. Also attrib. or adj.
| 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 388 The Cassacke beares his felt, to force away the raine. 1687 Rycaut Hist. Turks II. 231 The Piracies and Depredations of the Cosacks in the Black Sea. 1698 J. Crull Muscovy 126 The Cossacks..were a certain Body of Soldiers, Established for the Guard of the Frontiers. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. ii. xv. 64 The Cossacks are a species of Tartars; their name signifies free-booters. 1822 Byron Juan viii. lxxiv, The Kozacks, or, if so you please, Cossacques. Ibid. x. li, The parries He made 'gainst Cossacque sabres. 1855 Tennyson Charge Light Brigade iv, Cossack and Russian Reel'd from the sabre-stroke Shatter'd and sunder'd. |
| transf. 1877 C. Geikie Christ xxv. (1879) 271 To hold these fierce Cossacks of the age in check. |
2. a. In full
Cossack boot: a high boot.
orig. U.S.| 1805 Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Jrnl. 29 Mar. (Advt.), Cossacks, Suwarrows..Full Boots. 1831 Mirror XVIII. 435/1 It's goodbye to Wellingtons and Cossacks,..the old Shoe Mart is disposed of. 1897 J. L. Allen Choir Invisible iv. 36 His new cossack boots. 1967 Guardian 9 Nov. 6/3 Country shoes and stockings, Cossack boots, hogskin gloves. |
b. In full
Cossack horse,
Cossack pony: a Cossack horse or pony.
| 1815 J. Scott Visit Paris xiii. 262 The driver of a cabriolet..told me that his horse was a Cossack. 1831 Youatt Horse 18 The most celebrated Cossack horses from the Don, the Black Sea, and the Ural. 1926 Blackw. Mag. Sept. 310/1 Our ponies nearly all of them came from England, but some people played Cossacks. I had a capital Cossack pony. |
c. pl. Baggy trousers, pleated into a waistband. Also
Cossack trousers.
| 1820 Kaleidoscope I. 29/1 Whose heart could parry the attacks Of his voluminous Cossacks—Trousers so-called from those barbarians Nursed in the Steppes. 1832 A. Earle Jrnl. Resid. Tristan da Cunha (1966) 235 The front of these ‘Cossacks’ consisting of sail cloth, and the back of dried goat's skin. 1844 Ainsworth's Mag. VI. 430 They were made very wide, long and loose (Cossack trowsers were the rage then). 1968 Guardian 28 July 7/4 Black coats over Cossack trousers that tuck into black patent leather boots. |
d. Cossack post: an outpost of a few mounted men under a non-commissioned officer or senior soldier.
| 1845 W. D. Cooley tr. Parrot's World Surveyed I. i. 10 This portion of the empire is traversed by a line of Kossack posts. 1853 L. Oliphant Russian Shores Black Sea 141 My importations from Don Cossack post-huts were considerable. 1860 T. W. Atkinson Trav. Amoor 9, I had visited..all the Cossack posts on my way to the Altin-Kool. 1861 W. F. Ainsworth All Round World, Steppes of Russia II. v. 292/2 The Cossack post of Schukovaia. Ibid., They had to put up at a Cossack post-house, a mere hut. 1899 Baden-Powell Aids to Scouting 131 Each force will form a line of outposts, consisting of two Cossack posts, and scouts for reconnoitring patrols. |
e. Cossack hat: a brimless hat, wider at the top than at the head-band.
| 1939 M. B. Picken Lang. Fashion, Cossack hat, adaptation of cap worn by Cossacks. 1951 ‘J. Tey’ Daughter of Time ii. 20 She breezed in, very dashing in a Cossack hat worn at a casual rake. 1966 Vogue Dec. 121 Persian lamb cossack hat. |
f. Canad. A sealskin or deerskin jacket.
| 1919 W. T. Grenfell Labrador Doctor (1920) vii. 155 He wore it over a deerskin kossak, which is not the custom of cavalrymen. |
3. slang. A policeman;
esp. a member of an armed strike-breaking force (from the similar use of Cossacks in imperial Russia). Also
attrib.| 1859 in Hotten Dict. Slang. 1886 Graphic 30 Jan. 130/1 A policeman is also called a ‘cossack’, a ‘Philistine’, and a ‘frog’. 1913 Ann. Rep. Dock Workers' Union 1912 5 Home Secretary intervenes with armed forces; attempts at suppression, cossack methods of the Home Office forces. 1928 Collier's 29 Dec. 9/4 Remember the state constabulary of Colorado, the so-called ‘Cossacks’ who were so bitterly complained of by striking miners. |
Hence
Coˈssackian,
Coˈssackic a. (
rare), pertaining to the Cossacks.
| 1816 Gentl. Mag. LXXXVI. i. 211 Form of government..entirely kozakian. 1824 J. Gilchrist Etym. Interpr. 14 The origin of Cossackic and Hottentotic, and of all the languages, etc. |