cozenage

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree English cozen Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātus Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -icus Latin -āticus Latin -āticum Old French -agebor. Middle English -age English -age English cozenage From cozen + -age.

1. The fact or practice of cozening; cheating, deception.

   “They ſay this tovvne is full of coſenage: / As nimble Iuglers that deceiue the eie: […]”

   “I ask you, What is human life? Is it not a maimed happiness—care and weariness, weariness and care, with a baseless expectation, the strange cozenage of a brighter tomorrow?”

2. An instance of cozening; a scam.

   “When I receive your Lines, my dear Princess, and find there Expressions of a Passion; though Reason and my own Immerit tell me, it must not be for me; yet is the Cozenage so pleasing to me, that I (brib'd by my own Desires) believe them still before the other.”