Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One whose occupation is the building of dry stone walls: used especially of one who has not been regularly trained in the mason's trade.
- n. Hence One who is not a Free-Mason.
Wiktionary
- n. A worker in unmortared stone; a stonemason who has not served an apprenticeship.
- n. freemasonry A person who attempts to pass himself off as a Freemason without having experienced the rituals or going through the degrees.
- n. slang A sneak; an inquisitive or prying person.
- n. uninitiated, outside, “profane”
- n. Scotland, obsolete, rare A fishing-boat.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Scot. One who works as a mason without having served a regular apprenticeship.
Etymologies
- First attested in 1722; perhaps from the Scottish Gaelic cobhan ("coffer”, “box”, “ark"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Maybe the next great network service is on a 16year old desktop somewhere in Massachusetts. reply peter cowan”
Sean Parker’s Rise of Facebook And Twitter, Fall Of Google Presentation (Full Slide Deck)
“October 23rd, 2009 at 8: 47 pm PDT sorry, but i love how he quotes hal varian, chief economist at google, about the value of network effects. reply peter cowan”
Sean Parker’s Rise of Facebook And Twitter, Fall Of Google Presentation (Full Slide Deck)
“We have goats brought in every year to grub on the hills up Valparaiso. reply peter cowan”
“As a boy, Bob had no way of knowing that “cow” might have been shorthand for “cowan,” an old Masonic term for “intruder.””
“I saw mike last saturday night down to normies, and he told me that one of my old Best friends greg just moved up to cowan heights.”
“Team theatre doing their thang at the 'tec (cavan vocational school) in 1986, with questions from audience including tec students .. aaron binchy, enda sullivan and dolores leddy. also see in the footage .. connor mcgowan, trevor cowan, fintan briody, martin egan, gerard sexton, paul casey, felim reilly, and loads more ... pt 2 to follow.”
WN.com - Articles related to Socially responsible art? It doesn't have to send you to sleep
“Staterail 1990 news footage of cowan rail disaster”
WN.com - Articles related to Europe banks slide on Greek woes, U.S. probes
“If your path, whether you are Pagan or otherwise, whether you are Witch or cowan, also moves you, or if it has value that doesn't even compare with the value I find in mine, then can you really say it is a religion like any other?”
“Low budget British feature film made by Johnnie Oddball Duncan cowan & Mark jackson for more info visit IMDB Low budget spoof horror film about two wannabe film makers making a documentry on the myth of the wild black panthers in the English countryside the movie if for sale on play. com”
“Duncan cowan & Mark jackson for more info visit IMDB Low budget spoof horror film about two wannabe film makers making a documentry on the myth of the wild black panthers in the”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cowan’.
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Most Obscure Words
acatalectic, acosmism, acuate, acuminate, adscititious, adytum, akratisma, alieniloquy, allelomorph, allochiria, allodium, alnage and 620 more...
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Masonry
Due to my absolute ignorance of masonry and masonic terms, this list is shamelessly copied from this masonic dictionary.
Feel free to add words (as soon as I complete my transcription).abif, accepted, accord, active member, adjournment, admonish, adoration, adversity, affiliate, affirmation, lawful age, aid of deity and 143 more...
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Defunct professions
Economists like to cite "buggy whip maker" as an example of a profession whose career prospects were dimmed, and ultimately quenched, by the inexorable march of technological progress. This is a li...
buggy whip maker, guillemot egg col..., bog iron hunter, nettle string maker, fuller, purple maker, tanner, gut girl, reddleman, wont catcher, navvy, ratcatcher and 239 more...
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Words featured in Mrs. Byrne's Dictio...
Selections from Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words by Josefa Heifetz Byrne (University Books, 1974). Definitions in the comments when not available elsewhere.
apanthropy, anoetic, aristology, ayne, bibliopole, bibliotaph, calecannon, caoine, catlap, chirospasm, clamjamfry, coadunate and 174 more...
Tweets
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