cottage

Cottage comes from Late Middle English, via Anglo-Norman cotage and Medieval Latin cotagium, from Old Northern French cot or cote ("cottage, hut") plus -age ("surrounding property"). That cote likely traces to Old Norse kot ("hut"), from Proto-Germanic *kutą, *kuta- ("shed"), a word possibly borrowed long ago from a Proto-Finno-Ugric or Proto-Uralic root meaning "hut, tent."

The word simply named a small dwelling and its plot of land, a sense that has stayed remarkably stable. In 19th-century slang it also came to mean "public toilet," apparently from a resemblance to small outbuildings.

It's cognate with Old English cot, and with German Kate, Swedish kåta, and Finnish kota — all descending from that same ancient word for a small shelter.