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prettygoodwordcottery (KOT-tuhr-ee) - (rare) (dial.) adj., (of hair) tangled, knotty.
Evidence is scant enough it hasn't made it into dictionaries as a main entry, but seems to be localized in northeastern England -- though Wiktionary finds it used in a recent Pat Barker novel. OED finds in NE England use of cotter as a verb meaning to form into a tangled mass going back to the late 18th century, and as a noun meaning an entanglement both physical and metaphorical from the late 19th century. In the same region, there's evidence that cotters is also used for tangles in hair. (found via)
---L.
Evidence is scant enough it hasn't made it into dictionaries as a main entry, but seems to be localized in northeastern England -- though Wiktionary finds it used in a recent Pat Barker novel. OED finds in NE England use of cotter as a verb meaning to form into a tangled mass going back to the late 18th century, and as a noun meaning an entanglement both physical and metaphorical from the late 19th century. In the same region, there's evidence that cotters is also used for tangles in hair. (found via)
---L.
