The deceptive meaning of cog

Author: John Cavanaugh

The Latin word “cogitare” means to think. Many different languages have been derived from Latin. In English we have plenty of words that use the stem cog which is from “cogitare”. Words like recognize and cognition. Both of these words have something to do with thinking, recognize means to know again, and cognition is the mental process of gaining knowledge. Shakespeare uses this stem, cog, as a word in Love’s Labour’s Lost. The princess says “Since you can cog, I’ll play no more with you” to Berowne. She is saying that since he can think for himself she won’t deal with anymore.