cousins
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See also: Cousins
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From cousin + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum, regular plurals of nouns, and the third-person singular indicative present tense forms of verbs).
The plural noun sense 1 (“American or British intelligence services”) was popularized in the works of the English author John le Carré (David John Moore Cornwell; 1930–2020).[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkʌzn̩s/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkʌz(ə)ns/, /ˈkʌzɪns/
- (US, weak vowel merger) IPA(key): [ˈkʰɐz.ɹ̩ns]
Audio (US) (file) - Homophone: cozens (weak vowel merger)
- Hyphenation: cou‧sins
Noun[edit]
cousins pl (plural only)
- (espionage, slang) The American intelligence services (from a British perspective) or the British intelligence services (from an American perspective).
- 1977, John le Carré [pseudonym; David John Moore Cornwell], chapter I, in The Honourable Schoolboy, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN, page 16:
- [T]he grounded fieldmen, the trainers and the case officers who made their own murmured caucus always – they saw the question solely in operational terms. […] They saw the shotgun marriage with the Cousins as just another skilful bit of tradecraft in a long and delicate poker game.
Alternative forms[edit]
Noun[edit]
cousins
Verb[edit]
cousins
- third-person singular simple present indicative of cousin
References[edit]
- ^ “cousins, n. and adj.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2023.
Anagrams[edit]
French[edit]
Noun[edit]
cousins m
Anagrams[edit]
Categories:
- English terms suffixed with -s (pluralia tantum)
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English pluralia tantum
- en:Espionage
- English slang
- English terms with quotations
- English non-lemma forms
- English noun forms
- English verb forms
- French non-lemma forms
- French noun forms