cozen
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It's the Word of the Day podcast for January 11th.

They're part of the more than 300,000 jobs BP supports across the country. Learn more at bp.com slash investing in America. Today's word is cousin, spelled C-O-Z-E-N. Cousin is a verb. To cousin someone is to deceive, win over, or induce them to do something by coaxing or trickery. Here's the word used in a sentence from the News Gazette of Lexington, Virginia.

It's only office seekers with no real solutions who rely on cozening the voter. Despite its resemblance to the adjective cozy, the verb cousin has nothing to do with being comfortable.

Used in contexts relating to deception or inducement by clever coaxing or trickery, the word is believed to come ultimately from the Italian word for a horse trader: "cazzone." Horse trading, as in the actual swapping of horses, often involves bargaining and compromise, and in fact the term "horse trade" has come to refer to any shrewd negotiation.

whether it involves equines or no. Horse traders have historically had a reputation for being less than completely transparent in negotiations, which explains the likely connection between Cozzone and Cousin's use in deceiving or winning someone to one's cause through trickery. With your Word of the Day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. Visit Merriam-Webster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.