Meanings
cowan1
plural cowans · obsolete plural cowanis · alternative kowan · alternative cowen
- A worker in unmortared stone; a stonemason who has not served an apprenticeship.
- slangA sneak; an inquisitive or prying person.
- attributiveUninitiated, outside, “profane”.
cowan2
Cowan3
alternative Cowans · alternative Cowin · alternative Cowing
- An outer suburb of Sydney in Hornsby Shire, New South Wales, Australia. Apparently an anglicization of a Yuin-Kuric word meaning “big water”.
- A place in the United States:
- An unincorporated community in Monroe Township, Delaware County, Indiana.
- An unincorporated community in Buffalo Township, Union County, Pennsylvania.
- A city in Franklin County, Tennessee; named after Dr. James Benjamin Cowan, a Civil War-era doctor whose family had lived in the area since the early 1800s.
Origin
cowan · noun
- Scottish Gaeliccobhan“coffer”, “box”, “ark”
- Englishcowan
First attested in 1722; perhaps from the Scottish Gaelic cobhan (“coffer”, “box”, “ark”).
More words from Scottish Gaelic
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with cowan
All rhymes →Cite this entry
cowan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cowan
“cowan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cowan. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cowan,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cowan.
Source: cowan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.